Category Archives: Documentary

Jean-Michel Basquiat Three-Part Documentary Presented By Christies

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Before his untimely death, even before he was taken under the wing of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat was something of legend.  He’s since become an enduring art icon.  His street art sensibility, youthful energy, and handling of themes of racism, class, psychology, and popular culture keep his art relevant from year to year.  However, Basquiat’s popularity is enjoying a special renewal over the course of 2013.  The hugely popular Basquiat retrospective at Manhattan’s Gagosian Gallery will be followed by another at Gagosian’s Hong Kong gallery later this month.  Additionally this month, Basquiat’s painting Dustheads is expected to fetch up to $35 million dollars in auction at Christie’s.  In conjunction with the auction, Christie’s has released a three-part video series on Jean-Michel Basquiat.  The first video features Basquiat’s early partner in graffiti, Al Diaz.  The second in the series speaks with fellow contemporary artist Toxic on Basquiat’s transformation into an art-star. The third installment (featured after the jump speaks with Macklemore, one of many contemporary rappers to express inspiration from the late artist.   [via]

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Landfill Harmonic And ‘The Recycled Orchestra’

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Landfill Harmonic- The world sends us garbage… We send back music. from Landfill Harmonic on Vimeo.

Recycling is a way of life in Cateura, Paraguay.  Many people there earn money by scouring the huge landfill for items that can be recycled.  A certain garbage picker, though, began recycling for much more than money: for the young people in his community.  Nicolás Gómez began creating instruments – violins, cellos, drums, guitars – from the trash he sifted through and gave them to local children.  The idea picked up steam and children’s orchestra known as “The Recycled Orchestra” came to life.  Landfill Harmonic, a documentary on Gómez and the orchestra, is slated to capture the inspirational story.  [via]

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LIKE KNOWS LIKE: Artist Interviews In The Age Of Social Media

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LIKE KNOWS LIKE is an ongoing video series inspired by the globe community of artists now connected with social media. Created by award winning photographer Marije Kuiper and documentary filmmaker Bas Berkhout, the Amsterdam based duo has interviewed a variety of different artists from all over the world that they originally became acquainted with through social media. Watch the videos after the jump.

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Corey Arnold’s Captivating Documentation Of A Fisherman’s Life

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Portland based, Corey Arnold, has taken some truly amazing documentary style photos of the honest accounts of what it means to be a fisherman at sea.  Corey’s photos are endearing telling stories of grueling and gritty conditions of the life of a fisherman tackling themes of isolation, courage, absurdity, and fortitude.  Corey is a fisherman himself, and has been taking astonishing real account photos as long as he has been fishing.  It is important to note that what makes Arnold’s photos so true and honest is the fact that he is actually a fisherman, just one of the guys out at sea, and has to earn his mate’s trust and pitch in like the rest bearing the harsh conditions of the day but still finding the nerve to grab his camera in opportune times.  In the summer Corey captains a wild salmon fishing boat in Bristol Bay, Alaska.  Arnold has exhibited his show “Fish-Work”: The Bering Sea earlier in 2012 and has published a book titled ‘The Bering Sea.’  (via)

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Chasing Ice- The One Documentary Film Everyone Must Watch!

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Last night I had the pleasure of watching one of the most incredible documentaries I’ve ever seen. It was simultaneously beautiful and heartbreaking. If there is only one movie you see before the end of the year make sure it’s Chasing Ice. After you watch it find out how you can host a screening of the film locally and spread this story.

“In the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.

Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.”

See more of Jame’s breathtaking photographs of glaciers after the jump.

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Guillermo Bert’s QR Code Textiles at the PMCA

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Over the weekend I had the pleasure of dropping by my neighborhood museum, the Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA), to check out new work by Guillermo Bert. The digital age has managed to find its way into places the mechanical age was never quite able to get to. In the exhibition’s accompanying essay, Peter Frank claims that this phenomenon has resulted in the poor becoming “confident operators” of this advanced technology. Of course accessibility is a good thing, but one can also argue that the arrival of this kind of technology can also put indigenous culture and tradition at risk. By combining QR Code technology with the very traditional art of textile weaving, Bert is bringing this infiltration of culture to the surface. The codes, when scanned with your mobile device, play one of a series of documentary films that contain several engaging protagonists who help unfold the story of the Mapuche people. Throughout history, textiles have been used by indigenous cultures to pass on the story of a culture from generation to generation. Perhaps Bert’s “encoded textiles” are a strange evolution of that tradition.

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Video Watch: Staying Relevant

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Welcome to the third and last installment of Hennessy’s video featuring Elliott Wilson, the founder of Rap Radar and Editor-in-Chief of RESPECT.  Elliott sheds further light onto how he stays relevant in a world that favors youth and how he is hungrier than ever to achieve his next big goal. He also breaks down his process for writing his letter from the Editor for each issue of RESPECT. and explains the goal of his magazine— capturing the moment and documenting a time. When Wilson points his finger at an undeniable moment in the culture, hip-hop listens.  Want more? Go to www.neverstopneversettle.com to see the full episode now!