Lightnin' Hopkins sings about playing cards with Les Blank and Skip Gerson - a card game he won which turned critical to the making of the film "The Blues Accordin' To Lightnin' Hopkins." After filming 13 songs, Lightnin' had told Les and Skip that he was done filming. As a last resort Les asked Lightnin' to play cards and he lost {dollar}200. But then Lightnin' agreed to film more. 3 1/2 min Color.

WITKIN AND WITKIN explores the worlds of identical twins, Joel-Peter, a world famous photographer and Jerome, a painter and life long educator. An intensely human film that addresses the philosophy of their practices, their art and personal relationship. A film about perception and growing older, two artists who shared a childhood but whose lives took very different directions.

After assembling mock assault rifles out of everyday found objects, sculptor David Hess decides to turn them into an experimental public art installation to explore America’s obsession with guns. The fruits of that mission comprise the story of Gun Show, a fascinating and deeply moving documentary that steers clear of advocating a position and instead invites meaningful dialogue about the cultural power of guns. Beginning in Hess’s sculpture studio,...

Starting his career with Nichols and May, training most of the original cast of SNL and forming Second City, and being the inspiration for the ever popular Upright Citizens Brigade theater (UCB), there isn't a comic working today who wasn't fostered or mentored in some way by Del Close.

Seductive, fearless, and outrageous, Marina Abramovic has been redefining what art is for nearly forty years. Using her own body as a vehicle, pushing herself beyond her physical and mental limits––and at times risking her life in the process––she creates performances that challenge, shock, and move us. Through her and with her, boundaries are crossed, consciousness expanded, and art as we know it is reborn. She is, quite simply, one of the...

Zaha Hadid discusses her current work while taking the camera through her retrospective exhibition "Zaha Hadid has arrived" at Vienna's MAK, a museum for design and contemporary art. The centerpiece is a sculptural work entitled "Ice Storm" especially created for the exhibition. "Zaha Hadid has arrived" is a brilliant review of her progress through the last decade and includes: her museums of contemporary art in Rome and Cincinnati, the BMW plant...

Jeff Wall is one of the most important and influential photographers working today. His work played a key role in establishing photography as a contemporary art form. Jeff Wall describes his recent work as "near documentary," a plausible account or a report on real or imagined encounters. Wall usually spends weeks painstakingly recreating these encounters and taking many pictures, from which he selects his final image in a critical process. His photographs...

In Memphis, the confluence of blues and hillbilly music at Sun Studios gives birth to “rockabilly,” the precursor of rock and roll. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash are at the forefront. Nashville has become Music City USA.

BOOM FOR REAL: THE LATE TEENAGE YEARS OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT follows Basquiat's life pre-fame and how New York City, the times, the people and the movements surrounding him formed the artist he became. Using never-before-seen works, writings and photographs, director Sara Driver, who was part of the New York arts scene herself, worked closely and collaboratively with friends and other artists who emerged from that period: Jim Jarmusch, James Nares,...

In the beginning stages of Roy Lichtenstein’s career, the artist found himself saddled with side jobs that utilized his creative energy. In the gaps of time between his personal projects, Lichtenstein worked on window displays, sheet metal designs and architectural sketches. It is not hard to forge a connection between Lichtenstein’s work experience and his own artwork. When watching the artist map out his creations one can feel these past experiences...