
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of their births, this unmissable new documentary explores Turner and Constable’s intertwined lives and legacies alongside the groundbreaking Tate exhibition. Two of Britain’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. Born within a year of each other, both used landscape painting to reflect the changing world around them. Tate Britain is bringing these two greats together for a groundbreaking exhibition, in London from November 2025 to April 2026, and Exhibition on Screen once again has exclusive and privileged access to bring their extraordinary art and remarkable stories to the big screen in February so that you can enjoy both film and exhibition together. Discover unexpected sides to both artists with intimate views of sketchbooks and personal items and insights from leading experts.
2026

"Graphic City" explores Lisbon's vibrant urban art scene through the unique eyes of artist Mariana Duarte Santos. Between murals and interventions that transform public space, the film delves into the streets of the Portuguese capital to reveal the artistic expression that arises from the city's walls. This documentary captures the creative spirit of Lisbon, where every corner becomes an open canvas for the imagination.
2024

The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life poetically narrates the story of a community of Iranian Americans who have made the San Francisco Bay Area their home over the past five decades. The film explores Iranian immigration through turbulent histories of dissent, revolution, war, and separation, and the reinvention of identity in a new land and culture. The Dawn is Too Far highlights how Iranian students, activists, and artists have navigated displacement while drawing on and influencing Bay Area culture. This community offers a more nuanced story of the Iranian diaspora—the ways that this community enriches the region where they live, work, and build families. The Dawn is Too Far undermines the tired and overplayed news headlines that are dominated by narratives of enmity and mistrust between the government of Iran and the U.S., to offer a more humane understanding of the how people's lives and the sacrifices they make are part of the larger story of immigration.
2024

2019

Seemayer Studios presents a new documentary about the American Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and the Arts District that surrounds it. Since 1979, the American Hotel has been the beating heart of a rich community of artists who began moving into the deserted factory buildings between Alameda and the Los Angeles River.
2017

2017

From award-winning director Phil Grabsky comes this fresh new look at arguably the world’s favourite artist – through his own words. Using letters and other private writings I, Claude Monet reveals new insight into the man who not only painted the picture that gave birth to impressionism but who was perhaps the most influential and successful painter of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite this, and perhaps because of it, Monet’s life is a gripping tale about a man who, behind his sun-dazzled canvases, suffered from feelings of depression, loneliness, even suicide. Then, as his art developed and his love of gardening led to the glories of his garden at Giverney, his humour, insight and love of life is revealed. Shot on location in Paris, London, Normandy and Venice I, Claude Monet is a cinematic immersion into some of the most loved and iconic scenes in Western Art.
2017

Simon Schama explains the style, theme and concept of Rembrandt's late masterpieces.
2014

The video revolution of the 1970s offered unprecedented access to the moving image for artists and performers. This Is Not a Dream explores the legacies of this revolution and its continued impact on contemporary art and performance. Charting a path across four decades of avant-garde experiment and radical escapism, This Is Not a Dream traces the influences of Andy Warhol, John Waters and Jack Smith to the perverted frontiers of YouTube and Chatroulette, taking in subverted talk shows and soap operas, streetwalker fashions and glittery magic penises along the way.
2012

A journey into the hearts, minds and eyes of Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo - three of the 20th century’s most remarkable artists.
2011

Filmed over three years, the documentary is an unprecedented record of a major artist at work. It captures David Hockney's return to England after 25 years in California. As he approaches the age of 70, he decides to re-invent his painting from scratch, working through the seasons and in all weathers out in the Yorkshire countryside - ending up with the largest picture ever made outdoors. It is at once the story of a homecoming and an intimate portrait of what inspires and motivates today's greatest living British-born artist as time runs out. Winner of Best Essay award at the International Festival for Films on Art in Montreal and nominated Best Arts Documentary by the Grierson and International Emmy Awards. Premiered on BBC1, the documentary appears in a special extended 60' version.
2009

400 years ago, in Japan, a revolutionary art was born and would influence the greatest Western artists of the late nineteenth century, the Ukiyo-E "floating images of the world." A wonderful trip in a world of beauty and discovery. The concept and objectives of this documentary are, on the one hand, to show, teach and discover Japanese art (Japanese stamps and prints) and, on the other hand, to demonstrate the influence of Japanese stamps on Western modern art, showing in comparison some of the Most famous paintings (impressionism or paintings by Van Gogh).
2008
The Sophisticated Misfit is a long-awaited must-have for fans of the artist Shag and Tiki culture alike. This documentary traces the artist’s roots growing up in Hawaii, his artistic journey in college, his early work designing album covers, to his modern-day role as an art-world phenom. In addition to exclusive footage of Shag painting in his home studio, the film features intimate interviews with the artist, his family, artistic influences, tiki-philes, celebrity collectors, and fans.
2007

The Kabul National Museum, once known as the "face of Afghanistan," was destroyed in 1993. We filmed the most important cultural treasures of the still-intact museum in 1988: ancient Greco-Roman art and antiquitied of Hellenistic civilization, as well as Buddhist sculpture that was said to have mythology--the art of Gandhara, Bamiyan, and Shotorak among them. After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, some seventy percent of the contents of the museum was destroyed, stolen, or smuggled overseas to Japan and other countries. The movement to return these items is also touched upon. The footage in this video represents that only film documentation of the Kabul Museum ever made.
2003
Tattooing — "the world's oldest skin game" — is the subject of this iconic documentary. Writer/director Geoff Steven scored a major coup by signing Easy Rider legend Peter Fonda as his presenter. Travelling to Aotearoa, Samoa, Japan and the United States, the doco traces key developments in tattooing, including its importance in the Pacific, prison-inspired styles, and the influence of 1960s counterculture. Legendary tattooists feature (including Americans Ed Hardy and Jack Rudy), while the closing credits parade some eye-opening full body tattoos.
1984

This short film is part of a mixed media artwork of the same name, which also included postcards of Ader crying, sent to friends of his, with the title of the work as a caption. The film was initially ten minutes long, and included Ader rubbing his eyes to produce the tears, but was cut down to three and a half minutes. This shorter version captures Ader at his most anguished. His face is framed closely. There is no introduction or conclusion, no reason given and no relief from the anguish that is presented.
1971

Bas Jan Ader rides his bike into a canal in Amsterdam.
1970

Stuart Cooper's short about the work of Spanish artist Juan Genovés is an inspired introduction to the works of this extraordinary artist, exploring its minimalist aesthetic and storytelling qualities through a variety of cinematic techniques, including rostrum, animation, news footage and live action recreations.
1969

Pop Goes the Easel was Ken Russell’s first full-length documentary for the BBC’s arts series Monitor. It focused on 4 British Pop Artists - Peter Blake, Peter Philips, Pauline Boty and Derek Boshier.
1962
How does a dying working class town end up betting its future on art? With 80% of its downtown buildings closed, North Adams, Massachusetts united blue-collar locals with art world luminaries to transform economic failure into America's largest center for contemporary art, MASS MoCA. A film by North Adams native Nancy Kelly, DOWNSIDE UP is about the tentative, dangerous notion of hope in a city widely viewed as hopeless.