Picturing the Presidents

Feb 10, 2009

1h 10m

★ 7.0

Is image everything?

Overview

We go behind the scenes and into the minds of artists as they capture, commemorate, and, at times, condemn our presidents.

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

The Smithsonian Network

Picturing the Presidents Trailers

Cast

Narrator

Salvatore Vecchio

Self (archive footage)

George H. W. Bush

Self (archive footage)

Gerald Ford

Self (archive footage)

Bill Clinton

Self (archive footage)

Lyndon B. Johnson

Self (archive footage)

Richard Nixon

Self (archive footage)

John F. Kennedy

Self (archive footage)

Elaine de Kooning

Self

Addie Moray

Self

Marc Pachter

Self

Nelson Shanks

Self

Hilary Kacser

Schtonk! is a farce of the actual events of 1983, when Germany's Stern magazine published, with great fanfare, 60 volumes of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler – which two weeks later turned out to be entirely fake. Fritz Knobel (based on real-life forger Konrad Kujau) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. When Knobel writes and sells a volume of Hitler's (nonexistent) diaries, he thinks it's just another job. When sleazy journalist Hermann Willié learns of the diaries, however, he quickly realizes their potential value... and Knobel is quickly in over his head. As the pressure builds and Knobel is forced to deliver more and more volumes of the fake diaries, he finds himself acting increasingly like the man whose life he is rewriting. The film is a romping and hilarious satire, poking fun not only at the events and characters involved in the hoax (who are only thinly disguised in the film), but at the discomfort Germany has with its difficult past.

3.0

Soft Self-Portrait of Salvador Dali

Dec 29, 1969

A documentary about surrealist artist Salvador Dali, narrated by Orson Welles.

10.0

FIT Hives: Sustainability - The Secret to Survival

Apr 8, 2017

A documentary that introduces FIT Hives, a student-run organization whose mission is to educate the FIT community about the importance of bees to the environment, the use of bee-derived resources in the industries related to the majors at FIT and its goal to put a beehive on the roof. FIT Hives is a recipient of an FIT Innovation Grant which also supported the making of this documentary.

0.0

Equipo Crónica. Arte de trinchera

Feb 28, 2025

No overview available.

6.2

W.

Oct 17, 2008

The story of the eventful life of George W. Bush—his struggles and triumphs, how he found both his wife and his faith—and the critical days leading up to his decision to invade Iraq.

No Image Available

8.2

Counterfeit Culture

Jan 1, 2013

Documentary - COUNTERFEIT CULTURE is a one-hour documentary that explores the dangerous and sometimes deadly world of fake products. An industry that once dealt in imitation designer handbags and shoes has exploded into a global epidemic of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, foods, toys, electronic goods, car parts and microchips. COUNTERFEIT CULTURE challenges consumers to take a deeper look at what appears to be harmless knock-offs at bargain prices. - Ann-Marie MacDonald, Tim Phillips, Todd Gilmore

No Image Available

5.7

Chuck Close

Jan 1, 2007

Chuck Close, an astounding portrait of one of the world's leading contemporary painters, was one of two parting gifts (her second is a film on Louise Bourgeois) from Marion Cajori, a filmmaker who died recently, and before her time. With editing completed by filmmaker Ken Kobland, Chuck Close lives the life and work of a man who has reinvented portraiture. Close photographs his subjects, blows up the image to gigantic proportions, divides it into a detailed grid and then uses a complex set of colors and patterning to reconstruct each face.

6.3

Charlotte

Apr 22, 2022

The true story of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted, she dreams of becoming an artist. Her first love applauds her talent, which emboldens her resolve. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs, she escapes to the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again, and finds new love. But her work is interrupted, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only an extraordinary act will save her, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story.

7.7

The Take

Sep 3, 2004

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed ceramics workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - the take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

5.0

Achieving the Unachievable

Sep 1, 2007

M.C. Escher is among the most intriguing of artists. In 1956 he challenged the laws of perspective with his graphic Print Gallery and his uncompleted master-piece quickly became the most puzzling enigma of modern art. Fifty years later, can mathematician Hendrik Lenstra complete it? Should he?

6.7

Miss Hokusai

May 9, 2015

A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own mark in the world.

7.6

JFK

Dec 20, 1991

Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.

6.0

Paco Roca: dibujando la vida

Oct 25, 2023

A portrait of Spanish comic book author Paco Plaza.

8.0

James Ensor: Demons Teasing Me

Oct 14, 2010

This film explains what James Ensor (1860-1949) meant for the development of art and makes palpable where he got his inspiration from.

6.9

Mona Lisa Smile

Dec 19, 2003

Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.

8.5

Charlotte Salomon: Life and the Maiden

Nov 17, 2022

In 1940, the German artist Charlotte Salomon (1917-43) undertook an extraordinary artistic adventure, during which she combined painting, text and music: in only eighteen months, she painted more than a thousand paintings. In 1943, she was arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp.

6.0

Billy Connolly: Portrait of a Lifetime

Jun 14, 2017

Celebrating Billy Connolly's 75th birthday and 50 years in the business, three Scottish artists - John Byrne, Jack Vettriano and Rachel MacLean - each create a new portrait of the Big Yin. As he sits with each artist, Billy talks about his remarkable life and career which has taken him from musician and pioneering stand-up to Hollywood star and national treasure.

No Image Available

0.0

J'ai peint des Vermeer

Dec 31, 1950

Art documentary

6.7

Pollock

Sep 6, 2000

In August of 1949, Life Magazine ran a banner headline that begged the question: "Jackson Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" The film is a look back into the life of an extraordinary man, a man who has fittingly been called "an artist dedicated to concealment, a celebrity who nobody knew." As he struggled with self-doubt, engaging in a lonely tug-of-war between needing to express himself and wanting to shut the world out, Pollock began a downward spiral.

0.0

The Lost Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Culture Show Special

Feb 22, 2014

In 2009, art detective Dr Bendor Grosvenor caused a national scandal by proving that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's iconic portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the rebel Stuart who almost seized power in 1745, was not in fact him. Keen to make amends, and suspecting that a long-lost portrait of the prince by one of Scotland's greatest artists, Allan Ramsay, might still survive, Bendor decides to retrace Charles's journey in the hope of unravelling one of the greatest mysteries in British art.