One Meter Democracy

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows the surrealist artist around the streets of New York documenting staged public art events.

He's hungry, and chances are you're also hungry, so tag along. Who knows, you might learn a thing or two.

IN 1988, rising star Kenneth Branagh tackled the role of Shakespeare’s prince of Denmark for the first time in his professional career under the guidance of celebrated actor Derek Jacobi. Narrated by Patrick Stewart, this hour-long film documents how Kenneth Branagh and Derek Jacobi, two intelligent and passionate men, found new depths in Shakespeare’s classic drama, Hamlet. Filmmakers Mark Olshaker and Larry Klein follow the company through four weeks of rehearsals, from the first read-throughs to opening night.

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.

Ernst Busch, singer and actor, was a political artist. For the 20th anniversary of his death on June 8, 2000, Peter Voigt embarked on an unusual search for clues. The focus of his film about the idiosyncratic artist is not biographical details, but the central conflicts in the field of tension between politics and culture that determined Busch's life.

Character assassination. Political assassination. Legal assassination. An actual assassination attempt. They will try anything to stop Trump. We can’t let them!

What would American democracy look like in the hands of teenage girls? In this documentary, young female leaders from wildly different backgrounds in Missouri navigate an immersive experiment to build a government from the ground up.

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

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.

One of a series of ‘falls’ by Bas Jan Ader that he recorded on film, this work was filmed in West Kapelle, Holland in 1970.

Bas Jan Ader hangs from the branch of a tall tree, until he loses his grip and falls into a river below.

Shot in his garage-studio, the camera records Ader painstakingly hoisting a large brick over his shoulder. His figure is harshly lit by two tangles of light bulbs. He drops the brick, crushing one strand of lights. He again lifts the brick, allowing tension to accrue. The climax inevitable—the brick falls and crushes the second set of lights. Here the film abruptly ends, all illumination extinguished.

In 1939, driven by a desire for fame and fortune English amateur Tommy Godwin cycled a world record 75,065 miles in one year setting out from home each day through bitter winters and the blackouts of World War Two. He became the fastest person to cycle 100,000 miles in just 500 days. After this epic feat of endurance, Tommy had to learn to walk again and uncurl his hands! The madcap record has only been attempted by a handful of determined souls and Tommy’s record stood for 76 years making it one of the greatest, but also most overlooked sporting achievements. Ultra endurance athlete and round the world cycling record holder Mark Beaumont is on a mission to shine a light on Tommy’s ride. He delves deeper into Tommy’s story and finds out if he has the physical and mental stamina to take on Godwin’s record.

In 2012 two members of anarchistic female band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in a Mordovian labor camp for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". Russian film collective Gogol’s Wives follow each step of the feminist punk band’s battle against Putin including their first disruptive performances on a trolley bus, shooting a video about transparent elections, a controversial performance in a Red Square cathedral, and footage shot in a jail cell. Support comes from many corners including Madonna who painted the words "Pussy Riot" on her back and wore a balaclava during her Moscow show. The documentary portrays the grim state of present-day Russia, a country starkly divided between conservatism and anarchy. Pussy Riot believes that art has to be free and they're willing to take it to extremes. "Pussycat made a mess in the house," they say, and the house is Russia. The filmmakers do not seek to moralize, they simply edit events and leave viewers to draw their own conclusions.