Popular Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 244

Jasper Johns: Decoy

1973

Jasper Johns: Decoy

1973
Jasper Johns’s Decoy is rooted inside the notions of reproduction, transformation and memory. Believing that an image gains new meaning each time it is presented, Johns boldly confronts his own past work, most notably Ale Cans (1964), and uses Decoy as a method of metamorphosis. The repetition of certain motifs allows both Johns and his spectators to confront the change an image goes through when approached from a different angle or placed in a new artistic context. As noted in the film, “each time a motif is used and reused additional memories accrue, new layers of meaning, and the image itself begins to acquire its own history.” (Jasper Johns) It is through Johns’s reimagining that the items he features in his work take on new life and grow from object to art, thus redirecting society’s interpretation.
Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospective

1979

Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospective

1979
This film includes important examples of the Robert Rauschenberg's diverse and extraordinary accomplishments, tracing his development from his student years and his earliest experiments to a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It features Rauschenberg, John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and was released in 1979.
Kumbh Mela: Songs of the River

2004

Kumbh Mela: Songs of the River

2004
The Kumbh Mela is a great roving Hindu spiritual festival that has moved around India for more than four thousand years, erecting temporary cities along the Ganges River.
Hogarth's Progress

1997

Hogarth's Progress

1997
Satirical, critical, talented – William Hogarth was one of the most original British artists of the 18th Century. The son of a poor schoolmaster made a name for himself as a portraitist and became best known for his satirical etchings. In strange and graphic tales, such as A Harlot's Progress, he denounced the social and political injustices of his time. Often pirated, Hogarth fought for the first image copyright law. Together with illustrators and writers from today, Andrew Graham-Dixon explores Hogarth's birth city London and recounts the life and work of a man who is regarded as the forerunner of modern caricature.
Wolfgang Mattheuer

1991

Wolfgang Mattheuer

1991
Wolfgang Mattheuer, together with Bernhard Heisig and Werner Tübke, is one of the main protagonists of the Leipzig School. With works such as Behind the Seven Mountains (1973) the graphic artist, painter and sculptor is one of the most controversial and yet most celebrated artists of the former GDR. With the use of mythology, literary references, and ambiguous details, he subverted the ideological edicts of the system. This film presents the great works of this reserved, yet perceptive ‘picture maker’. An insightful interview with Mattheuer introduces us to his eclectic visual world and his metaphorical response to contemporary events and the GDR regime.
Frans Hals of Antwerp

1992

Frans Hals of Antwerp

1992
Frans Hals (1582-1666) was a portrait painter with a unique style, admired for its originality and vivacity not only by the Impressionists but also by artists like van Gogh or Picasso. Very little documentation of his life exists today, so this film uses the thorough contemplation of his canvases as the key to his story. Works by the landscape artists and still-life painters of his time help to illustrate the age in which he lived. The film furthermore exemplifies the elaborate conventions of portraiture at the time.
Willi Sitte

1991

Willi Sitte

1991
Painter and government official – the two sides of Willi Sitte which made him the most important yet most controversial East German artist. Portraying the working class, defying imperialism or revealing intimate togetherness, he became the leading figure of Socialist Realism. His career in the Association of Fine Artists (VBK) and the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED elevated his status to that of ‘Prince of East German Painting’. Reiner Moritz met the controversial, first-rate draughtsman in his studio after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Through his life and work, he traces the story of Sitte’s artistic development in the service of socialist ideology.
Werner Tübke

1991

Werner Tübke

1991
Step right up into the world of Werner Tübke! The painter and illustrator from Leipzig created fantastical imagery, replete with virtuosity and a love of storytelling. In the style of the old masters, he transformed the everyday and the political into something that transcends time, and in that way developed his own distinct, anachronistic viewpoint. As a co-founder of the Leipziger Schule, Tübke paved the way for a figurative art, which has earned him international recognition since the 1970s. Reiner E. Moritz met with the GDR’s extravagant prince of painting in his studio and accompanied him at work on his showpiece, the German Peasants' War panorama in Bad Frankenhausen.
Bernhard Heisig

1991

Bernhard Heisig

1991
In the mists of war and violence, the Harlequin, trumpet in hand, drifts through ravaged landscape passing a cripple and a marionette: Bernhard Heisig's pictorial worlds shock the viewer by depicting the great dramas of German history. Both a victim and a perpetrator in World War II and in the GDR dictatorship, the artist's search for sense and truth led him to his moving image formulas. Director Reiner E. Moritz converses with the renowned ex-principal of the Leipzig Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Visual Arts) about his work, which influenced the development of art for many decades in the rigid GDR system.
Norman Foster

1995

Norman Foster

1995
Norman Foster (b.1935) is widely considered to be one of the world's greatest living architects. He has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Berlin, Glasgow and London. While other international practices have succumbed to commercial pressures, Foster has retained a reputation for innovation and originality. He is also highly respected for his flair when adapting or converting older buildings to present-day needs. His designs are always rooted in his concern for minimal environmental damage and maximum technological efficiency. This film follows Foster at work in his office and on the site of some of his major new projects, including the Law Faculty at Cambridge University and the telecommunications tower in Santiago de Compostela. Foster is a man driven by his passion for architecture and his perfectionism. This portrait reveals not only his genius, but also his highly sensitive and artistic personality.
Arrow Game

1974

Arrow Game

1974
A short documentary film by ethnographic filmmaker Tim Asch that shows young members of the Yanomamo Indian tribe sharpening their arrow-shooting skills.
Iraq: The Song of the Missing Men

2006

Iraq: The Song of the Missing Men

2006
From the deep south to the extreme north, a trip through Iraq where the amazing diversity of Iraqi society is unveiled. Haunting chants are interwoven with the voices of the people, lending a poetic resonance to the issue.
Discovery of Art: Kurt Schwitters

2000

Discovery of Art: Kurt Schwitters

2000
This documentary provides a detailed look at the works of the German artist, now best known for his collages and junk sculpture. Schwitters began painting as an expressionist, but in 1919 he turned to collage, incorporating into his works trash such as train tickets and newspapers, which he exploited for their colour, texture, and surprise value. Includes many of Schwitters' most famous creations filmed during an exhibition of his works at the George Pompidou Museum.
The Great Electric Airplane Race

2022

The Great Electric Airplane Race

2022
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The Highest Court: Behind the Scenes at the High Court of Australia

1998

The Highest Court: Behind the Scenes at the High Court of Australia

1998
Most Australians know about the Mabo and Wik decisions, but few know much about the decision makers — The High Court of Australia. Having gained historic access, THE HIGHEST COURT shows first hand the characters and drama of the High Court of Australia, the pinnacle of legal and constitutional processes in Australia. The role of the Court is explored as the film follows the handing down of two historic constitutional judgements, Kruger and Ha, and the appointment of two new Justices — Hayne and Callinan. For the first time cases have been filmed as they actually happen in the Court culminating with the recent Hindmarsh Island Bridge challenge.
Heinrich Schütz: The Father of German Music

2015

Heinrich Schütz: The Father of German Music

2015
Heinrich Schütz was presumably the first internationally renowned German composer. In the 40 years he spent as court "kapellmeister" in Dresden, he left a strong impression on musical life in Europe. Although he was named "father of our modern, meaning German, music", he was long forgotten after his death in 1672. His works in their clear beauty still seem up-to-date, almost modern. However, only his vocal works - a small part of his extensive oeuvre - are known today. Narrating this documentary are, amongst others, international musical experts from Germany, Venice or Copenhagen - like David Douglas Bryant, Bjarke Moe, Prof. Matthias Herrmann, Dr. Christina Siegfried - as well as conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann, who was the first to record Schütz's complete (known) oeuvre.
Mary Ainsworth: Attachment and the Growth of Love

2005

Mary Ainsworth: Attachment and the Growth of Love

2005
Mary Ainsworth's "Strange Situation" is now basic to understandings of infant-parent interactions and, thus, later emotional development. Working in close collaboration with the British psychiatrist John Bowlby, Ainsworth gave us new understandings of the huge impact very early emotional experiences have on personality development across the life span.
Nagasaki Journey

1995

Nagasaki Journey

1995
Rashomon-like look at the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 10, 1945. Features color footage of the bomb's aftermath shown in public for the first time in over fifty years. The film features extremely rare footage of the atomic bombing, both black-and-white and color.
Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm

1994

Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm

1994
A documentary chronicling the lives of various freshman inhabitants of Trancos Hall, a co-ed dorm on the campus of Stanford University.
The Lost Coast of Gabon: Sea Kayaking West Africa

2006

The Lost Coast of Gabon: Sea Kayaking West Africa

2006
Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and stretching 40 miles into the jungled interior, we kayaked and portaged more than 200 miles around the park's perimeter, seeing this wild country from a new and different perspective. Along the way we encountered river-swimming elephants, manatees, tarpon, surfing hippos, gorillas and more. By trip's end it was hard to decide which were the most beautiful, and the most difficult, parts of the expedition, but it was eye opening, for us all.