Arts
A selection of films on art that shakes up preconceived ideas. It extends the pleasure of contemplation or enhances the experience of a piece. By juxtaposing mythical films and recent ones, we offer the sharpest views on the world of art … in all its forms.
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Garden City Beautiful
Subscription access
One sunny afternoon in the Middle West, suspended in a time between, two commuters daydream about a life lived otherwise.
Parade
Duration: 5 minutes
Subscription access
_Parade_ is made of three parts, with each part using a different film language. The first segment uses narrative film language to tell a mysterious story. The second part uses expressionist visual language. The third sequence is composed of events all happening simultaneously which, in film, can only be shown as a sequence. The title _Parade_ refers to the fact that film is composed of individ...
Too Early/Too Late
Duration: 3h30
Subscription access
Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Enge...
Alfred DesRochers, poète
Duration: 28 minutes
Subscription access
A portrait of the great poet Alfred DesRochers, who was also a journalist for _La Tribune_ in Sherbrooke and enjoyed his moment of fame before the Second World War. Here, he shares his reflections on the difficult conditions of literary life in French Canada.
The Blind Owl
Duration: 3h08
Subscription access
An immigrant movie projectionist drifts into an oneiric and fantastical spiral after falling in love with a dancer who appears on his screen. With this singular film, Raoul Ruiz crafts a highly free and hybrid adaptation of two major literary works: _The Blind Owl_ by Sadegh Hedayat and _Damned by Despair_ by Tirso de Molina.
Whose Language You Don’t Understand
Whose Language You Don’t Understand
New product!Duration: 1h01
Subscription access
_Whose Language You Don’t Understand_, named after a novel by the late Austrian writer Marianne Fritz (1948-2007) is a video cycle exploring the limits of language. Fritz spent most of her life, over 30 years, working on a cycle of dense and complex novels she called _The Fortress_, consisting of over 10,000 pages and still unfinished at the time of her death. Her project is an unusual and asto...
The Shape of Things
Subscription access
A spectacular film shot during the first sculpture symposium held in North America, in Montreal in the summer of 1964, _The Shape of Things_ follows eleven sculptors from nine countries as they hammer, carve, and shape stone.
Slet 1988
Subscription access
In _Slet 1988_, dancer Sonja Vukićević, aged 74, moves through socialist-modernist spaces; her body is an archive of the last mass performance in Yugoslavia. Her gestures echo past rhythms and present realities, intertwining with a 1988 teenage girl’s diary to reveal the shift from socialist collectivism to rising individualism, while a new national collective body is creeping in and will soon ...
Eastern Anthems
Subscription access
An unfinished film is passed along from one friend to another. The dialogue between them is a journey crossed by the swarming of the Great Eastern Brood X (periodical cicadas that prophetically emerge every 17 years in the United States), invoking a reflection of a post-pandemic present and our shared futures. A road movie composed of a chorus of voices (both human and non-human), the warnings ...
R. Roussil, From the Ground Up
R. Roussil, From the Ground Up
Duration: 2h34Subscription access
Robert Roussil, a leading figure in Quebec sculpture, left a profound mark on art history with his bold creations and his unwavering commitment to freedom of expression. Yet since his passing in 2013, his legacy seems to be fading into oblivion. _R. Roussil, From the Ground Up_ seeks to rekindle the memory of this visionary artist by delving into his work and philosophy. Built around a rich ass...
Fait vivir
Subscription access
This poetic documentary follows the Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra, a multicultural troupe of musicians and circus artists based in Montreal. Narrated by Manuk, a 5-year-old boy, the film chronicles their tour of Colombia, bringing the show Makondo to areas marked by armed conflict. Between the present and the past, homeland and adopted land, brother and sister, a film emerges as a balm for nostalgia a...
Pioneer Species
Subscription access
In a community garden in Nanterre, inhabitants gather weekly around a pioneer tree species (empress tree, _pawlawnia tomentosa_) that will one day be planted in the future metro stations of the Grand Paris. Through these gatherings, they learn how plants respond to soil, water and urban conditions, while collectively imagining what their neighborhood could become. The film finds its counterpoin...
Animus femina
Subscription access
Four women in close contact with wildlife explore our relationship with living beings through repair, reflection, art and "living-with". Four exceptional journeys that invite us to decenter our human gaze and rethink our ways of inhabiting the world in a time of climate crisis.
Life Through The Lens
Subscription access
_Life Through The Lens_ invites us to meet some of passionate individuals of biodiversity in France who contributed to Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film _Vibrant_ in 2023. Whether professional or amateur naturalists, budding or seasoned videographers, they share with us their life experiences and the little secrets that have enabled them to become intimate witnesses to a natural world as beautiful as...
81 meters
Subscription access
Spring 2021. A cinephile invites you on an intimate journey through the last surviving cinema houses in Latvia. This documentary essay, shot on Super 8, opens the locked doors of these theaters during what may be the most difficult period in the history of physical cinema spaces. They are closed to the public, but at times we can feel that they are still alive.
The Observer
Subscription access
_The Observer_ offers a reflective exploration of photographer Juris Kalniņš’s work and life, spanning both the soviet era and the present day. The film seeks to uncover the points of intersection between these two distinct political regimes, providing a nuanced biographical and artistic insight into Kalniņš’s worldview and creative evolution. Through a blend of observational footage and st...
Meeting Meat Joy
Subscription access
Based on a deep, clumsy and humorous Skype encounter between French researcher Chlo Lavalette and legendary artist Carolee Schneemann, this evocative experimental essay explores whether – and at what costs – spectators should help artworks escape the intentionality of their authors and the zeitgeist in which they were made, and questions the contemporary affordances of a certain feminist legacy.
It Runs in the Family
Subscription access
Through a series of re-enactments starring her family and the filmmaker, Victoria Linares Villegas traces the forgotten life of her cousin, queer filmmaker and political activist Oscar Torres, blurring the lines between her reality and his.
Lloyd Wong, Unfinished
Subscription access
In the early 1990s, Lloyd Wong began to make a work based on his experiences living with AIDS in Toronto, but he died from AIDS-related illnesses before completing it. For three decades, his work-in-progress was considered "long-lost" until it resurfaced at The ArQuives. In this experimental documentary, Lesley Loksi Chan combines Lloyd Wong's footage with fragments of her research notes to ref...
Garden City Beautiful
Subscription access
One sunny afternoon in the Middle West, suspended in a time between, two commuters daydream about a life lived otherwise.
Parade
Duration: 5 minutes
Subscription access
_Parade_ is made of three parts, with each part using a different film language. The first segment uses narrative film language to tell a mysterious story. The second part uses expressionist visual language. The third sequence is composed of events all happening simultaneously which, in film, can only be shown as a sequence. The title _Parade_ refers to the fact that film is composed of individ...
Too Early/Too Late
Duration: 3h30
Subscription access
Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Enge...
Alfred DesRochers, poète
Duration: 28 minutes
Subscription access
A portrait of the great poet Alfred DesRochers, who was also a journalist for _La Tribune_ in Sherbrooke and enjoyed his moment of fame before the Second World War. Here, he shares his reflections on the difficult conditions of literary life in French Canada.
The Blind Owl
Duration: 3h08
Subscription access
An immigrant movie projectionist drifts into an oneiric and fantastical spiral after falling in love with a dancer who appears on his screen. With this singular film, Raoul Ruiz crafts a highly free and hybrid adaptation of two major literary works: _The Blind Owl_ by Sadegh Hedayat and _Damned by Despair_ by Tirso de Molina.
Whose Language You Don’t Understand
Whose Language You Don’t Understand
New product!Duration: 1h01
Subscription access
_Whose Language You Don’t Understand_, named after a novel by the late Austrian writer Marianne Fritz (1948-2007) is a video cycle exploring the limits of language. Fritz spent most of her life, over 30 years, working on a cycle of dense and complex novels she called _The Fortress_, consisting of over 10,000 pages and still unfinished at the time of her death. Her project is an unusual and asto...
The Shape of Things
Subscription access
A spectacular film shot during the first sculpture symposium held in North America, in Montreal in the summer of 1964, _The Shape of Things_ follows eleven sculptors from nine countries as they hammer, carve, and shape stone.
Slet 1988
Subscription access
In _Slet 1988_, dancer Sonja Vukićević, aged 74, moves through socialist-modernist spaces; her body is an archive of the last mass performance in Yugoslavia. Her gestures echo past rhythms and present realities, intertwining with a 1988 teenage girl’s diary to reveal the shift from socialist collectivism to rising individualism, while a new national collective body is creeping in and will soon ...
Eastern Anthems
Subscription access
An unfinished film is passed along from one friend to another. The dialogue between them is a journey crossed by the swarming of the Great Eastern Brood X (periodical cicadas that prophetically emerge every 17 years in the United States), invoking a reflection of a post-pandemic present and our shared futures. A road movie composed of a chorus of voices (both human and non-human), the warnings ...
R. Roussil, From the Ground Up
R. Roussil, From the Ground Up
Duration: 2h34Subscription access
Robert Roussil, a leading figure in Quebec sculpture, left a profound mark on art history with his bold creations and his unwavering commitment to freedom of expression. Yet since his passing in 2013, his legacy seems to be fading into oblivion. _R. Roussil, From the Ground Up_ seeks to rekindle the memory of this visionary artist by delving into his work and philosophy. Built around a rich ass...
Fait vivir
Subscription access
This poetic documentary follows the Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra, a multicultural troupe of musicians and circus artists based in Montreal. Narrated by Manuk, a 5-year-old boy, the film chronicles their tour of Colombia, bringing the show Makondo to areas marked by armed conflict. Between the present and the past, homeland and adopted land, brother and sister, a film emerges as a balm for nostalgia a...
Pioneer Species
Subscription access
In a community garden in Nanterre, inhabitants gather weekly around a pioneer tree species (empress tree, _pawlawnia tomentosa_) that will one day be planted in the future metro stations of the Grand Paris. Through these gatherings, they learn how plants respond to soil, water and urban conditions, while collectively imagining what their neighborhood could become. The film finds its counterpoin...
Animus femina
Subscription access
Four women in close contact with wildlife explore our relationship with living beings through repair, reflection, art and "living-with". Four exceptional journeys that invite us to decenter our human gaze and rethink our ways of inhabiting the world in a time of climate crisis.
Life Through The Lens
Subscription access
_Life Through The Lens_ invites us to meet some of passionate individuals of biodiversity in France who contributed to Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film _Vibrant_ in 2023. Whether professional or amateur naturalists, budding or seasoned videographers, they share with us their life experiences and the little secrets that have enabled them to become intimate witnesses to a natural world as beautiful as...
81 meters
Subscription access
Spring 2021. A cinephile invites you on an intimate journey through the last surviving cinema houses in Latvia. This documentary essay, shot on Super 8, opens the locked doors of these theaters during what may be the most difficult period in the history of physical cinema spaces. They are closed to the public, but at times we can feel that they are still alive.
The Observer
Subscription access
_The Observer_ offers a reflective exploration of photographer Juris Kalniņš’s work and life, spanning both the soviet era and the present day. The film seeks to uncover the points of intersection between these two distinct political regimes, providing a nuanced biographical and artistic insight into Kalniņš’s worldview and creative evolution. Through a blend of observational footage and st...
Meeting Meat Joy
Subscription access
Based on a deep, clumsy and humorous Skype encounter between French researcher Chlo Lavalette and legendary artist Carolee Schneemann, this evocative experimental essay explores whether – and at what costs – spectators should help artworks escape the intentionality of their authors and the zeitgeist in which they were made, and questions the contemporary affordances of a certain feminist legacy.
It Runs in the Family
Subscription access
Through a series of re-enactments starring her family and the filmmaker, Victoria Linares Villegas traces the forgotten life of her cousin, queer filmmaker and political activist Oscar Torres, blurring the lines between her reality and his.
Lloyd Wong, Unfinished
Subscription access
In the early 1990s, Lloyd Wong began to make a work based on his experiences living with AIDS in Toronto, but he died from AIDS-related illnesses before completing it. For three decades, his work-in-progress was considered "long-lost" until it resurfaced at The ArQuives. In this experimental documentary, Lesley Loksi Chan combines Lloyd Wong's footage with fragments of her research notes to ref...
