Human rights become profoundly personal when Ai Weiwei, China's most famous artist, transforms Alcatraz Island prison into an astonishing expression of socially-engaged art focused on the plight of the unjustly incarcerated.

Alexander Calder is the definitive portrait of one of the pre-eminent artists of the 20th century, and the inventor of an art form, the mobile. This acclaimed film shows Calder at work in his studio and never-before-seen archival films and photographs.

The documentary ALGREN is a journey through the gritty world, brilliant mind, and noble heart of Nelson Algren, who defined post-war American urban fiction with his gritty, brilliant depiction of working class Chicago.

A woman ahead of her time, Altina Schinasi was born in 1907 in New York City; the daughter of a tobacco tycoon and descendent of Sephardic Jews. Her genteel upbringing was in sharp contrast to the bold sexuality of her art and her life.

A Film by Peter Cohen. Featuring never-before-seen film footage of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, this spectacular film shows the inner workings of the Third Reich and illuminates the Nazi aesthetic in art, architecture and popular culture.

Poetic, riveting and moving, three-time Academy Award nominee Carlos Saura's latest foray into the music of Argentina explores the heart of traditional Argentine folklore and its stunning musical heritage - from traditional styles to modern dance.

One of New York's great Renaissance men, Isaiah Sheffer left an indelible mark on music, theater, television, and culture in the Big Apple. This affectionate documentary includes archival material, performances, and interviews.

In this stunning documentary, photographer Don Freeman explores the homes designed and lived in by notable American artists, revealing the inventiveness derived from the dialogue between each artist's practice and the construction of their handmade homes.

Three contemporary artists and a master printer explore how social reality and protest are conveyed in art. While the stirring works of the masters sweep by, the making of an etching, a woodcut and a lithograph unfolds before our eyes.

1957. The Latin Quarter, Paris. A cheap no-name hotel becomes a haven for artists fleeing the conformity and censorship of America, producing some of the most important works of the Beat generation.

Learn abouy painting and drawing with David Hockney, Robert Gil de Montes, Wayne Thiebaud and Matt Groening. Hosted by Penn & Teller.

Explore theater, sculpture and photography with Julie Taymor (The Lion King), sculptor Nancy Graves, and photographers Carrie Mae Weems and William Wegman.

Discover the magic and mystery of artistic creation in this complete set of all 10 episodes of Behind the Scenes on 3 DVDs! Hosted by magicians Penn and Teller, the award-winning series explores the creative process with world-renowned artists.

Two films by Allan Miller. The Academy Award winning The Bolero captures the essence of an orchestra as Zubin Mehta conducts Ravel's classic. In Search of Cezanne is an exploration of the life and legacy of 19th century French painter.

From cinema-vérité pioneers Albert Maysles and Joan Churchill to maverick moviemakers like Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, the world’s best documentarians reflect upon the unique power of their genre in this eye-opening two-disc box set.

Tom Donahue combines archival material and interviews with Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges, Martin Scorsese and many more to tell the story of legendary casting director Marion Dougherty, and Hollywood's most unheralded profession.

A documentary portrait of Gregor Piatigorsky, one of the 20th century's premier classical musicians, a beloved teacher, and larger-than-life personality whose story may not be familiar to audiences today.

Since the dawn of cinema, sex workers have been portrayed (mostly negatively) by filmmakers. In this enlightening mix of history, critique and homage, sex workers tell you which films they love and hate, and which get it right and which miss the mark.

Moshe Rynecki was a prolific Warsaw-based artist who painted scenes of the Polish-Jewish community until he was murdered in the Holocaust. For more than a decade his great-granddaughter has searched for his missing art.

Enter the foreboding world of Chet Zar, an influential figure in the Dark Art Movement, where apocalyptic industrial landscapes are inhabited by monstrosities. Sometimes gruesome, periodically funny, but always thought-provoking, Zar's art is as enigmatic as it is frightening.

What do Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis and Kevin Kline have in common? They are but a few of the extraordinary actors who studied under renowned acting teacher Moni Yakim at Juilliard, America's greatest performing arts school.

Filmed over three years, this documentary is an unprecedented record of a major artist at work. It captures David Hockney’s return from California to paint his native Yorkshire, outside, through the seasons and in all weathers.

Directors: Life Behind the Camera features thirty-three legendary directors who reveal intimate and in-depth knowledge about the art of filmmaking and their own careers. Featuring Scorsese, Altman, Lucas and many more!

Insightfully narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is an intimate portrait of two of America's most important designers, the husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames.

At a time when the NEA has never been more threatened, this new documentary provides a music-fueled journey across America. Featuring a breathtaking array of musicians, dancers, quilters, woodcarvers, and more.

A deep look at photographer Burk Uzzle. From Martin Luther King Jr. to Woodstock to America's small towns and back roads, Uzzle's iconic photographs offer a breathtaking commentary on American civil rights, race, social justice, and art.

Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story combines traditional documentary storytelling with original animation culled from seven decades worth of art from the renegade children's book author and illustrator.

Gabriel Baur’s latest film is about Swiss Icon Irene Staub, aka Lady Shiva – fierce feminist, fashion diva, freedom rebel, punk singer, and actor who charmed everyone from Catherine Deneuve to Felllini, Bowie and Jagger.

A fascinating look at the creative process, this unique documentary explores what happens when the artist Gottfried Helnwein takes on the role of Production Designer for a never-before-seen opera written by Israel‘s most famous playwright.

Gray Matters explores the long, fascinating life of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture.

An unprecedented look at the rise, fall and resurrection of the father of the American Arts and Crafts movement as told through interviews, archival materials, and a close examination of Stickley's most iconic works.

Hans Richter: Everything Turns – Everything Revolves celebrates the life of the Dadaist, abstract painter and experimental filmmaker who was a major force in redefining art in the 20th century.

Herman Wallace may be the longest-serving prisoner in solitary confinement in America - 40 years and counting in a 6-by-9-foot cell. This award-winning documentary reveals the remarkable expression his struggle finds in an unusual art project.

Narrated by Susan Sarandon, Hiroshima No Pika is an animated film based on the award-winning children’s book by Japanese artist Toshi Maruki. With the Academy Award nominated Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima.

A portrait of one of the world’s premier architects, How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? follows Norman Foster’s unending quest to improve the quality of life through design.

This "smile-inducing" (NY Times) documentary tells the story of how Black gospel quartet music became a primary source for what we would call rock and roll, and in the process helped to break down racial walls in 1950s America.

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here is a double portrait in film of the lives and work of Russia's most celebrated international artists, now American citizens, as they come to terms with their global lives and the new Russia.

Born deaf in 1899 in rural Idaho, James Castle mined the local landscape and his own deeply private world to produce an astonishing body of drawings, collages, and constructions that eventually gained worldwide recognition.

Narrated by George Plimpton, this documentary about the life and work of one of America's greatest humorists includes interviews with Edward Albee, John Updike, Alistair Cooke, Roy Blount Jr., Fran Lebowitz and others.

By 14 he had written five novels and penned a diary about the Nazi occupation of Prague. By 16 he had produced 170 drawings and paintings, edited an underground magazine in the Jewish ghetto, and had walked to the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Doug Pray's film is the story of a 340-ton boulder that was moved from a quarry in Riverside to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The massive artwork is the latest 'land sculpture' by one of America's most exciting artists, Michael Heizer.

For 25 years, Academy Award®-nominated director Jerry Aronson accumulated more than 60 hours of film on Ginsberg, resulting in this comprehensive portrait of one of America’s greatest poets, author of Howl and other groundbreaking poems.

What's it like to dedicate your life to work that won't be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four remarkable projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.

This beautifully realized documentary chronicles the life and work of Qi Shu Fang, one of the preeminent masters of Chinese Opera living in the United States, and highlights the intricacies of Peking Opera, an art form that is hardly known in the West.

A warm and richly painted portrait of the little known relationship between Henri Matisse and Sister Jacques-Marie, the woman who inspired him to create what he proclaimed the masterpiece of his life's work: The Chapel of the Rosary in the French village of Vence.

Chronicling the life and times of New York street photographer and former taxi driver Matt Weber, More Than the Rainbow is a poetic celebration of the world's greatest city and the individuals who walk its streets.

An informed and intimate portrayal of the contemporary jazz scene that offers revelatory glimpses for fans of the genre, Music For Black Pigeons strikes a universal chord in its pursuit of wider questions centered around creativity.

A documentary that explores the lives of renowned Black artists who emigrated to Paris to liberate themselves from the racism of the United States, including Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Richard Wright and Augusta Savage.

This in-depth portrait of notorious American author Nelson Algren uses interviews, rare archival footage, and the gritty voice of Algren himself to capture the elusive and unique literary figure whose fame was cemented with the success of The Man with the Golden Arm.

In 2003, the ambitious renovation of The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam began. Home to masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer and others, the museum finally reopened five years later than expected, with costs exceeding half a billion dollars.

In this lyrical documentary, filmmaker Chiara Clemente shines a light on five women artists- Nancy Spero, Marina Abramovic, Kiki Smith, Ghada Amer and Swoon- whose inspiration is fueled by living and working in New York City.

In 1959, government employee Richard Oyler asked world-famous architect Richard Neutra to design his modest home. To Oyler's surprise, Neutra agreed and a friendship began that led to the construction of a modern masterpiece.

Based on an exclusive series of interviews with Paul Bowles shortly before his death and anecdotes provided by friends including Gore Vidal, Bernardo Bertolucci and many others, this fascinating documentary reveals a daring and visionary life.

Among the most acclaimed choreographers in American history, Paul Taylor reinvented the roles of music and movement in dance for nearly 60 years. This rare, in-depth look into his creative process is the last documentary made with him before his death in 2018.

This enlightening documentary celebrates the centenary of the Pulitzers – the revered national award for excellence in journalism and the arts. Featuring interviews with Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon, Nicholas Kristof and many more.

Actor John Turturro takes audiences on a haunting, intimate journey to his maternal homeland of Sicily, where one of the puppet theater's few remaining practitioners instructs him in the distinctively Sicilian art of puppetry.

The documentary follows a classically trained composer as he adapts a dime novel masterpiece into a grand opera – bringing America's cowboy culture and the sprawling beauty of the West into the realm of Puccini and Verdi.

Award-winning musicians honor the rich history and cultural legacy of Cajun music. Featuring electrifying performances, this crowd pleasing documentary explores how playing kick-ass music preserves tradition for future generations.

Kevin MacLeod is the world’s most-heard living composer – who nobody’s heard of. Royalty Free brings to life this remarkable musician, who allows anyone to use his music for no charge, from Hollywood studios to grandmas making cat videos.

Discover the strangely beautiful places where things go to die and meet the people who collect, restore, and recycle the world's scrap. SCRAP scratches beneath flaking paint and rusting metal to reveal the beauty and pathos in what we leave behind.

Seat 20D: Suse Lowenstein's Dark Elegy explores the many shapes grieving can take. After Pan Am 103 was brought down in Lockerbie, a mother whose son was on the flight spends 15 years creating an astonishing work of art.

Exploring the revolution in journalism sparked by the turbulence of the 1960s, Smiling Through the Apocalypse is the story of maverick editor Harold T.P. Hayes, who made Esquire magazine a galvanizing force in American culture.

This gorgeous visual investigation by Sedona resident Kathy Douglas is an exploration of the basic belief that wisdom is everywhere. The film highlights 16 extraordinary Sedona women whose stories teach, entertain and inspire.

Influential photographer Arnaud Maggs, turning 85, embarks on a series of self-portraits that wryly depict his life's work. Spring Hurlbut at 60 is creating haunting works that evoke mortality. Together more than 25 years, each grapples with the nature of an artist's creativity.

Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver), and other Hollywood screenwriters share insights and anecdotes in the most comprehensive documentary ever made about screenwriting.

From antiquity to the present, Tattoo Uprising reveals the artistic and historical roots of today's tattoo explosion, exploring Biblical references and early Christian practices before moving on to our current day, ever-evolving use of the tattoo.

The first documentary to explore the American family photo album through the eyes of black photographers, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history to discover images that have been suppressed, forgotten and lost.

Narrated by Stanley Tucci, Top Hat and Tales chronicles the first 25 years of The New Yorker, from its creation by Harold Ross in 1925 to his death in 1951.

Filmmaker Peter Stephan Jungk had always known that his great aunt, Edith Tudor-Hart, was a talented photographer. But it wasn't until 20 years after her death that he learned she had led a double life, as a KGB agent.

Troublemakers unearths the birth of land art in the late 1960s and early 1970s when a cadre of renegade artists sought to transcend the limitations of painting and sculpture by producing monumental earthworks in the desert of the American southwest.

In a city with 8 million people, there's bound to be a few good stories. True New York is a feature-length compilation anthology film featuring five award-winning short documentaries and the amazing characters who call the city home.

Featuring Bill Murray, Steven Spielberg, Goldie Hawn, Bob Dylan, Lily Tomlin, Jim Belushi and more, TVTV looks at Top Value Television, a collective of video makers who in the 1970s took the brand-new portable video camera and went out to document the world.

This Academy Award nominated film follows James Nachtwey, a committed, shy man, who is considered one of the bravest and most important war photographers of our time.