The Films
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by Vanessa GouldThink origami is just paper planes and cranes? Meet a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at hard-earned graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders. Together they reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of sensibilities towards art, science, creativity and meaning.
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by Linda Hattendorf and Masahiro YoshikawaEighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of internment camps, Hiroshima and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. The Cats of Mirikitani is an intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing powers of friendship and art.
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by Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev -
by Tamra DavisIn his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a wunderkind and a phenomenon. Discovered through his graffiti art in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side, he sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200, and later became best friends with Andy Warhol. Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in a definitive documentary.
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by Jeff MalmbergAfter being beaten into a coma, Mark Hogancamp is left brain damaged and traumatized. He devises his own brand of therapy by constructing a 1/6th-scale World War II-era town in his backyard, and weaving complex storylines around his characters. Through Marwencol, Mark embarks on a long journey back into the real world, both physically and emotionally.
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by Lucy WalkerBrazilian artist Vik Muniz creates portraits of people using found materials from the places where they live and work. His Sugar Children series portrays the deprived children of Caribbean plantation workers using the sugar their parents harvest. We meet Muniz as he embarks on his next project, inspired by the trash pickers at the largest landfill on earth.
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by Paige West and Anne-Marie RussellAn exhilarating look at the work of the Brazilian-born contemporary conceptual artist and rising star Vik Muniz — sculptor, photographer and self-proclaimed magician. Muniz, best known for his book Seeing Is Believing, uses his knowledge of and interest in the history of photography to demonstrate how we, as viewers, can easily be deceived by the images around us.
the National Endowment for the Arts