Edward Said: The Idea of Empire

Edward Said, a Palestinan writer, academic and exile, talks about his book "Culture and Imperialism" and explains how the attitudes forged over the last 200 years continue to enforce the relationship between the west and the developing world.

Köy

KÖY (Turkish for village) is about the longing for home, for belonging and the freedom of the self. Three women from three generations are united by their Kurdish roots.

The Art of Acid

Mark McCloud is the world's leading collector Of LSD art. His 'Institute of Illegal Images' has over 30,000 framed hits of acid and traces the history of the drug's cultural influence through the unique art form used in its distribution - blotter art. After enduring and defeating aggressive prosecutions by law enforcement seeking to put him behind bars for life, Mark now appears to be more of a visionary than an outlaw and his museum has become a place of pilgrimage for believers in LSD's spiritual power.

Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace

Known for his vibrant reinterpretations of classical portraits featuring African-American men, New York-based painter Kehinde Wiley has turned the practice of portraiture on its head and in the process has taken the art world by storm.

Renasça

Wild Art: Olly & Suzi

Documentary following Olly Williams and Suzi Winstanley, two unique wildlife artists who simultaneously work on the same painting of exotic and endangered animals while on location in the wildest corners of the world. The film shows how they work and why what they do is so important.

Sherlock Holmes Against Conan Doyle

130 years after he was created, Sherlock Holmes is a literary character who exceeded his author's expectations and is known throughout the world. Find out the true story behind the author, Conan Doyle, and his struggle to come to terms with the phenomenon that is Sherlock Holmes.

Chris Berens

Artist Chris Berens finds his inspiration in his own magical inner world. The animals and creatures that play a major role in his imagination also populate the landscapes he creates with his special painting technique. It results in scenes that are both enchanting and ominous.

Hermitage Revealed

To celebrate its 250th anniversary, this documentary tells the story of one of the world’s greatest museums, from its foundation by Catherine the Great, though to its status today as a breathtakingly beautiful complex which includes the Winter Palace. Showcasing a vast collection of the world’s greatest artworks together with contemporary art galleries and exhibitions, it holds over 3 million treasures and world class masterpieces in stunning architectural settings. This is its journey from Imperial Palace to State Museum, encompassing a sometimes troubled past, surviving both the Revolution in 1916 and the siege of Leningrad by the Nazis in 1941-44.

'Orsay

Voulez-vous rire avec moi ce soir?

French humorist Yacine Belhousse tours the world to explore how stand-up comedians make audiences laugh across cultures.

Pretty song

Fragments from a portrait of Jean-Louis Costes - sincere artist, versatile designer, poet of excess -, a man forever atoning his anguish through singing, performance, drawing and writing...

Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde

Man Ray, the master of experimental and fashion photography was also a painter, a filmmaker, a poet, an essayist, a philosopher, and a leader of American modernism. Known for documenting the cultural elite living in France, Man Ray spent much of his time fighting the formal constraints of the visual arts. Ray’s life and art were always provocative, engaging, and challenging.

Botticelli's Venus: The Making of an Icon

Sam Roddick explores the enduring appeal of Botticelli's masterpiece The Birth of Venus, one of the most celebrated paintings in western art. A joyous celebration of female sexuality, its journey to worldwide fame was far from straightforward and it lay in obscurity for centuries. Artist and entrepreneur Sam explains why Botticelli's nude was so revolutionary, and explores its impact on contemporary culture with artists such as Terry Gilliam, who memorably reinvented Venus for his Monty Python's Flying Circus animations.

Merkel-Jahre - Am Ende einer Ära

The film shines a light onto federal chancellor Angela Merkel and her now ending 16-year-long tenure. An era, not an episode. And a vagarious relationship history between the chancellor and the Germans. Who has changed whom here?

I Am Gentrification. Confessions of a Scoundrel

Is the city of Zurich suffering from ‘density stress’? What is it like to live in mega cities such as São Paulo, Mexico City and Tiflis? Filmmaker Thomas Haemmerli broaches the topics of city development, architecture, density, housing market, xenophobia and gentrification from an autobiographical perspective. The path of his life has led him from a childhood in the villa district of Zürichberg, through his teenage years as squatter to flat shares, yuppie apartments and finally second homes in various cities. Only recently having become a dad, he plans to further enhance Zurich’s price appreciation by purchasing a huge, extended city apartment… This multifaceted essay not only humorously questions the filmmaker’s decisions, but also those of the right-wing conservatives, who are afraid of losing their space to immigrants, and the political left, who fail to embrace modern-age architecture.

The Art of Grieving

After the untimely death of his 35-year old brother, an artist explores the questions that surfaced from grief by painting 365 paintings and to spur conversation in culture.

Graffiti Wars

A look at the feud between graffiti artists King Robbo and Banksy.

X:et

About Swedish artist, painter, sculptor and set designer Sven "X-et" Erixson, presented with Lars Johan Werle's music and accompanied by readings from various literature and poetry.

3 Still Standing

Three stand-up comedians seek fame and fortune in the hottest comedy scene in the world: San Francisco in the 1980s.