Movi Hub

Hokusai Up Close: Paintings from the Freer Gallery of Art

2023

In 2018 Japan’s NHK television network was given unprecedented access to the Freer Gallery of Art’s collection of works by Katsushika Hokusai so they could film the details of paintings using a state-of-the-art 8K video camera. The resulting documentary is hosted by actor Iura Arata and features commentary from the James Ulak, former curator at the National Museum of Asian Art, and Tim Clark, former curator at the British Museum. The film’s intended premiere in April 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic. We are proud to finally screen it. Explore masterpieces at a never-before-seen level of detail and enjoy new insights into the artist’s genius.

6.0

A Visit to Hokusai

2014

A look at the work of Japanese woodblock printing artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

0.0

Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait

1966

Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait explores the recurring themes in Bacon’s work, his influences and his life. The documentary is accompanied by a haunting score specially composed by Edwin Astley for the production.

0.0

The Warhol Effect

2024

Lifting the lid on the fascinating last decade of Andy Warhol's life and the legacy he left for future artists, through never-before-seen footage and interviews with insiders.

0.0

Francis Bacon in His Own Words

2009

A collection of BBC archive material about painter Francis Bacon, including a previously unseen interview recorded in 1965.

6.0

Les vendredis d'Apostrophes

2015

Hours and historical meetings, Pierre Assouline has composed an anthology of the best extracts presented in the form of a primer, which he had commented on by a surprised Bernard Pivot.

0.0

Kazuo Ohno: I Dance Into the Light

2004

A documentary about legendary butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno.

7.7

Bombin'

1987

First broadcast in 1987 on the UK's Channel 4, Bombin' is a documentary about Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu nation bringing American hip-hop culture to the UK for first time. The main focus is the graffiti art of Brim and the variety of reactions he is faced with from the British public and press.

7.0

Citizen Lane

2018

Citizen Lane is an innovative mix of documentary and drama that delivers a vivid and compelling portrait of Hugh Lane, one of the most fascinating and yet enigmatic figures in modern Irish history. A man of multiple contradictions, by turns infuriatingly parsimonious or extraordinarily generous, a professed nationalist and a knight of the realm; a monumental snob and a fearless campaigner for access to the arts.

10.0

Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color

2021

Alma W. Thomas lived a life of firsts: the first Fine Arts graduate of Howard University (1924), the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1972), and the first Black woman to have her paintings exhibited in the White House (2009). Yet she did not receive national attention until she was 80.

0.0

The Art of Antony Gormley

2009

The Art of Antony Gormley features the documentary Antony Gormley and the 4th Plinth, produced for Sky Arts, which reveals the background to this living monument and explores its origins in the sculptor's beautiful and mysterious art. Works created across more than two decades were filmed in HD for this visually sumptuous and thought-provoking documentary.

7.2

The Lost Leonardo

2021

London, England, 2008. Some of the most distinguished experts on the work of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) gather at the National Gallery to examine a painting known as Salvator Mundi; an event that turns out to be the first act of one of the most fascinating stories in the history of art.

0.0

Henry Moore: London 1940-42

1963

A montage, using documentary material filmed during the war, shows the beginnings of an air attack and Londoners entering shelters. From the silent deserted streets, the film moves underground into the world of Henry Moore's shelter drawings. People sit along subway platforms, looking after their children, settling down for the night, sleeping in bunks and on the floor. Above ground London burns. Henry Moore used the eye of a sculptor in portraying the stolidity and enduring patience of a besieged people. This film brings together a unique series of drawings which are some of the most remarkable achievements of an artist during wartime. Eliminating all narration, it explores, on several metaphoric levels, the very nature of human consciousness and creativity.

0.0

Kandinsky

1957

The Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky claimed, or has been credited with, the 'creation' of abstract art. At the core of this film is a dramatic recreation of Kandinsky's account of returning to his studio one dark evening, and being astonished by an unknown masterpiece of abstract art leaning against the easel - a picture which turned out to be one of his own landscapes fallen on its side. 'Now I knew for certain that the object spoiled my pictures.' While this film's narration does indeed emphasize the notion of an inspired breakthrough to Abstraction, the picture it conveys in more purely filmic ways is a rich and complex one.

0.0

How Many Colours Has a Hand?

1971

A film about and with Max Ernst.

0.0

Daniel Richter on Emil Nolde

2014

Emil Nolde was a Nazi – and so what, asks contemporary German artist Daniel Richter. “It’s a moralistic debate. A debate, that mirrors the moralism and bigottery of a generation that seems to think, that the world is a moral playground.” Emil Nolde’s relationship to the Nazi-regime in the Third Reich has given rise to immense discussions within the last months. For decades the broader public had a picture of Nolde being one of the “entartete” artists as well as being prohibited painting by the Nazi-regime. Though this on the surface is true, it was the result of a great disappointment to Nolde. For years, he had strived to become “the” artist of the Thrid Reich, praising his own art as true, German, anti-French and anti-Jewish. Possible competitors within the German art world like Max Pechstein he actively denounced to the Nazi authorities.

8.0

Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper

2020

TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT EDWARD HOPPER is an immersive experience in 3D, that takes its viewers on a journey into the world of Hopper, sharpening their senses for some aspects of his unique work.

0.0

David Hockney: Time Reclaimed

2017

He is a major figure in the pop art movement; one of the most popular and influential artists of his generation. The motifs and colors of his canvasses have been widely reproduced, and are now part of the 20th century art pantheon, changing the way we view the world. Hockney is typically seen as an artist who loves life, a good time, glamour and sex. The highly personal and emotional side of his work is often overlooked, much like the intensity and individuality he has shown in each of his successive periods and styles. Through images, anecdotes, and detailed pictorial analysis, this documentary highlights how the renowned painter defies classification and remains mysterious in many ways: an intense, profound, and infinitely passionate artist.

0.0

A.B.

2023

A documentary-style capturing of the life of Ab, a young struggling artist trying to find her way, all while dealing with unwanted company.

8.5

L'Affaire Caravage

2020

In 2014 a large painting representing Judith Beheading Holofernes was discovered in an attic in Toulouse, France. A controversy ensued immediately about the attribution of the painting's authorship to Caravaggio. The documentary follows a famed art expert in charge of organizing the sale of the painting on behalf of the owners, while specialists debate on its authenticity.

Genre	Documentary
Production Companies	Office of Charles & Ray Eames

Cezanne

Related Movie

Hokusai Up Close: Paintings from the Freer Gallery of Art

A Visit to Hokusai

Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait

The Warhol Effect

Francis Bacon in His Own Words

Les vendredis d'Apostrophes

Kazuo Ohno: I Dance Into the Light

Bombin'

Citizen Lane

Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color

The Art of Antony Gormley

The Lost Leonardo

Henry Moore: London 1940-42

Kandinsky

How Many Colours Has a Hand?

Daniel Richter on Emil Nolde

Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper

David Hockney: Time Reclaimed

A.B.

L'Affaire Caravage