Back to At Home DOCUMENTARIESA selection of standout non-fiction films from the Metrograph library. A “secret history” of feminist art from the 1960s to the 21st century.!WOMEN ART REVOLUTIONLynne Hershman Leeson | 83 min | 2010 Hazan’s narrative-nonfiction hybrid focusing on artist David Hockney is a time capsule of hedonistic gay life in the 1970s as well an invaluable portrait of art history in action.A BIGGER SPLASHJACK HAZAN | 106 min | 1974 David Hockney leads the viewer on a charming and illuminating guided tour through 17th-century China as depicted in the 72-foot scroll The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour.A DAY ON THE GRAND CANAL WITH THE EMPEROR OF CHINAPhilip Haas, David Hockney | 46 min | 1988 Captured live, the final annual Christmas performance from the McGarrigle Sisters is a stirring, star-studded feast for music lovers.A NOT SO SILENT NIGHTGerard Schmidt | 94 min | 2009 An exuberant and seductive short film that introduces viewers to the unique history of tap dance. Selected by Justice Sanders.ABOUT TAPGEORGE T. NIERENBERG | 28 min | 1985 Bachwal’s visually ravishing investigation into just what happens when you get hit by lightning.ACT OF GODJennifer Baichwal | 75 min | 2009 Inspired by the Anthropocene Working Group, Bachwal’s film is an awe-striking and terrifying record of the scars left on the planet by mankind.ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCHJennifer Baichwal | 87 min | 2019 A key work of Latin American cinema, Benacerraf’s film is an engrossing, lyric portrait of daily life and labors for the salt workers of the Araya peninsula.ARAYAMargot Benacerraf | 90 min | 1959 A tour de force of montage filmmaking illustrating the rise and fall of Romania’s notorious totalitarian and his wife.THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCUAndrei Ujica | 180 min | 2011 Giuseppe Pignone’s tender documentary pays tribute to Line Wertmüller, tracing her early days as an assistant to Fellini through to her rise to international arthouse celebrity.BEHIND THE WHITE GLASSESValerio Ruiz | 112 min | 2015 A rich trove of never-before-seen archival footage shows the charismatic and controversial German artist Joseph Beuys’s teachings, installations, and happenings.BEUYSAndreis Veil | 107 min | 2017 A revealing examination of the Swedish painter and mystic Hilma af Klint.BEYOND THE VISIBLE: HILMA AF KLINTHalina Dyrschka | 94 min | 2019 The first in Rogosin’s trilogy of films on American race relations, followed by Black Fantasy and Woodcutters of the Deep South.BLACK ROOTSLIONEL ROGOSIN | 63 min | 1970 Rosi’s deceptively simple feature debut journeys down India’s Ganges river.BOATMANGianfranco Rosi | 55 min | 1993 A documentary exploring rebirth and the reconciliation process in postwar Vietnam.BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUTBeth B | 71 min | 2001 Clarke’s vividly colored short turns the bridges of New York Harbor into an eerie, swaying jungle of dizzying abstractions.BRIDGES GO ROUNDShirley Clarke | 8 min | 1958 Clarke documents a bravura performance by Anna Sokolow, a choreographed interpretation of the dance between matador and bull.BULLFIGHTShirley Clarke | 9 min | 1955 With Come Back, Africa, Rogosin took the docufiction style of On the Bowery to c. 1959 Johannesburg.COME BACK, AFRICALIONEL ROGOSIN | 92 min | 1960 This Wiseman-esque documentary from Claire Simon observes a process that is highly personal, idiosyncratic, and subject to the vagaries of personal prejudice.THE COMPETITIONCLAIRE SIMON | 121 min | 2016 A vital record of activist art, following The Free Theater Associates, including performers Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda, on their anti-Vietnam roadshow.F.T.A.Francine Parker | 103 min | 1972 An intimate look at the life of Leon Vitali, who gave up his dreams of an acting career to dedicate his life to that of Stanley Kubrick’s.FILMWORKERTony Zierra | 94 min | 2018 Inspired by the horrors of the European immigration crisis, Rosi’s Golden Bear-winning impressionistic documentary follows a 12-year-old boy living on Lampedusa.FIRE AT SEAGianfranco Rosi | 114 min | 2016 Klein’s stunningly up-close-and-personal sports documentary, set behind the scenes of the 1981 French Open.THE FRENCHWILLIAM KLEIN | 135 min | 1982 Rogosin self-distributed his plea for pacifism in hopes of encouraging young men to resist the draft and the war.GOOD TIMES, WONDERFUL TIMESLIONEL ROGOSIN | 70 min | 1966 Godard’s penultimate feature finds him experimenting with the possibilities of digital 3D to plot the disintegration of a couple’s relationship and its images.GOODBYE TO LANGUAGEJean-Luc Godard | 70 min | 2014 A stunning portrait of the powerful and pansexual glam-pop diva.GRACE JONES: BLOODLIGHT AND BAMISophie Fiennes | 105 min | 2018 An investigation into photographer and provocateur Helmut Newton through interviews with muses like Charlotte Rampling, Claudia Schiffer, and Grace Jones.HELMUT NEWTON: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFULGero von Boehm | 93 min | 2020 Kudlacek’s film provides a penetrating insight into the mind of its legendary subject, artist and filmmaker Maya Deren.IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DERENMartina Kudlacek | 103 min | 2001 A study of bodies in motion—specifically, the flow of crowds in and out of the parks of Paris.IN PARIS PARKSShirley Clarke | 14 min | 1954 A labyrinthine personal journey in search of the meaning of images, with Godard, narrating in voice-over, as elusive guide.THE IMAGE BOOKJean-Luc Godard | 88 min | 2019 Lixin Fan’s moving documentary traces the mass phenomenon that is the annual homecoming journeys of Chinese migrant workers to celebrate Lunar New Year.LAST TRAIN HOMELixin Fan | 85 min | 2009 An intimate portrait of the peripatetic American writer Paul Bowles, shot in New York and his adopted home of Tangier.LET IT COME DOWN: THE LIFE OF PAUL BOWLESJennifer Baichwal | 75 min | 1999 Mekas’s somber, stirring rumination on the immigrant experience and his years as a war-displaced new arrival to the US.LOST, LOST, LOSTJonas Mekas | 178 min | 1976 Sculptor Louise Bourgeois often turns cryptic in interviews, but thanks to Wallach’s patient, observant approach to her sometimes spiky subject, Bourgeois reveals much.LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE SPIDER, THE MISTRESS...Marion Cajori | 99 min | 2008 A look inside a textile factory in India that captures both the beauty of the fabrics and the ugly reality of the backbreaking labor and dismal working conditions within.MACHINESRahul Jain | 71 min | 2016 A stirring, deeply empathetic travelog, moving from China to Bangladesh, inspired by the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky.MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPESJennifer Baichwal | 86 min | 2006 Shot during the development of Barney’s massively ambitious film Drawing Restraint 9, Chernick’s behind-the-scenes documentary offers a first-hand account of the artistic process.MATTHEW BARNEY: NO RESTRAINTAlison Chernik | 72 min | 2006 Flaherty, the father of American documentary, followed his massively successful Nanook of the North with this visually ravishing document of the traditional life of Polynesians on the Samoan island of Savaiʻi.MOANA WITH SOUNDRobert Flaherty | 85 min | 1926 A unique and elegiac self-portrait from the titanically talented director/photographer/composer Gordon Parks, looking back on his life.MOMENTS WITHOUT PROPER NAMESGordon Parks | 60 min | 1987 An astonishing real-time record of the most influential artist of the 20th century at work.THE MYSTERY OF PICASSOHenri-Georges Clouzot | 78 min | 1956 William Greaves’ riveting documentary record of the 1972 National Black Political Convention, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum.NATIONTIMEWilliam Greaves | 80 min | 1972 Rogosin's anecdotal tale of drunks and day-laborers progresses in a wavering amble, starring nonprofessionals who lived the parts that they played.ON THE BOWERYLIONEL ROGOSIN | 65 min | 1956 Shirley Clarke reconnected with Ornette Coleman in the early ’80s, shooting his concert at a newly opened arts center in Fort Worth, Texas.ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICASHIRLEY CLARKE | 77 min | 1985 An intense study of the physical, psychological, and social breakdown of the human condition.OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MINDBeth B | 6 min | 1995 A documentation of German artist Anselm Kiefer’s monumental task of transforming an abandoned silk factory in the south of France into the site of an ongoing series of massive installations.OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROWSophie Fiennes | 95 min | 2011 A lyric documentary about the nature of debut, inspired by Margaret Atwood’s vital nonfiction book Payback.PAYBACKJennifer Baichwal | 82 min | 2012 Shirley Clarke's documentary portrait of Jason Holliday, a gay, African American cabaret dancer, part-time hustler, and full-time raconteur.PORTRAIT OF JASONSHIRLEY CLARKE | 95 min | 1967 A delightfully anarchic autobiographical meta-film exploring the power dynamics underpinning experience, memory, and the manner in which women’s stories are told.PRIVILEGEYvonne Rainer | 103 min | 1990 Ferrara’s fond, often funny portrait of a NYC independent theater operator, holding out against the corporate chains, in spite of overwhelming odds.THE PROJECTIONISTABEL FERRARA | 81 min | 2019 A document of the thin line between science and cultism in the early ’70s and a touching story of female camaraderie.THE RAFTMARCUS LINDEEN | 97 min | 2018 A sensitive portrait of an African American left-wing activist who was also a tireless media watchdog.RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECTMatt Wolf | 87 min | 2019 One man’s quest for love, an intensely emotional short film by Clarke working with playwright Sam Shepard and actor Joseph Chaikin.SAVAGE/LOVEShirley Clarke | 25 min | 1981 The first nonfiction film to win the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion, Sacro GRA is a city symphony of the Roman outer suburbs.SACRO GRAGianfranco Rosi | 95 min | 2013 This playful live-action short, nominated for an Academy Award, daringly documents the construction of the Tishman Building high above Fifth Avenue.SKYSCRAPERShirley Clarke | 20 min | 1960 A documentary-fiction hybrid essay film combining interviews with a narrative centered on two characters struggling with a sense of alienation from their bodies.TOUCH ME NOTAdina Pintilie | 123 min | 2018 Mekas’s exhilarating, epic portrait of the New York avant-garde arts scene of the 1960s.WALDENJonas Mekas | 177 min | 1969 Shooting in the red light districts of Thailand, Bangladesh, and Mexico, Michael Glawogger’s globe-hopping documentary studies the lives of three sex workers.WHORES' GLORYMichael Glawogger | 110 min | 2011 “What if someone else wrote your autobiography?” That is the question posited by Alexander Olch as he tells the life-story of his former Harvard professor, the filmmaker Richard P. Rogers.THE WINDMILL MOVIEAlexander Olch | 82 min | 2008 Woodcutters of the Deep South describes the inhuman working conditions of lumberjacks in Mississippi and Alabama.WOODCUTTERS OF THE DEEP SOUTHLIONEL ROGOSIN | 85 min | 1973 Glawogger’s globe-spanning documentary panorama is a post-apocalyptic movie set in the present day, with vignettes revealing a world of grueling labor and Stygian landscape.WORKINGMAN'S DEATHMichael Glawogger | 122 min | 2005
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