Call Us Ishmael

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

Painters Painting: The New York Art Scene 1940-1970 is a 1972 documentary directed by Emile de Antonio. It covers American art movements from abstract expressionism to pop art through conversations with artists in their studios. Artists appearing in the film include Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Barnett Newman, Hans Hofmann, Jules Olitski, Philip Pavia, Larry Poons, Robert Motherwell, and Kenneth Noland.

From Boris Karloff to Mel Brooks - Frankenstein has fired the imagination of generations of artists who have created their own interpretation of this Gothic masterpiece. Frankenstein: A Modern Myth looks at some of these depictions, including Danny Boyle's sell-out hit at the National Theatre. The film has exclusive access to rehearsals and interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller - who alternate the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature - and with Danny Boyle. It also features cult film director John Waters: "I'm sympathetic to monsters, and this was the first one I came across as a child".

Arguably one of the most fateful and resonant events of the last half millennium, the Pilgrims journey west across the Atlantic in the early 17th century is a seminal, if often misunderstood episode of American and world history. The Pilgrims explores the forces, circumstances, personalities and events that converged to exile the English group in Holland and eventually propel their crossing to the New World; a story universally familiar in broad outline, but almost entirely unfamiliar to a general audience in its rich and compelling historical actuality. Includes the real history of the "first thanksgiving".

In the world of 1970s car racing, Hurley Haywood was cool, calm and collected. A five-time 24 Hours of Daytona winner, three-time Le Mans winner and Trans-Am champion, Haywood was a Hollywood archetype: a strikingly handsome man brought up by a good Midwestern family. Yet Haywood was often overshadowed by racing partner and volatile mentor, Peter Gregg—the Batman to his Robin—whose abrupt suicide in 1980 shook the sport to its core. And yet Haywood had secrets of his own. Despite multiple encounters with women, some that included public appearances alongside Penthouse models, he remained elusive about his personal life. With deft use of archival footage and exclusive interviews featuring actor and fellow racer, Patrick Dempsey, Hurley reveals a greater insight into Haywood’s tightrope walk between career and sexuality, while posing the question—will motorsport ever be ready for openly LGBT racers?

Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Henry Geldzahler reflects on the 1960s pop art scene in New York.

In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex is assaulted by something no one could believe—a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance.

The Pickles family welcome a new arrival, Dil, whose constant crying and need for attention quickly exhaust the other toddlers. Seeking to return the "broken" baby to the hospital, the gang embarks on a journey in a Reptar Wagon that inadvertently veers off course, leaving them stranded in a vast, dangerous forest. While facing off against escaped circus monkeys and a predatory wolf, Tommy must overcome his own resentment to protect his brother and make it back home.

A free-spirited woman "kidnaps" a yuppie for a weekend of adventure. But the fun quickly takes a dangerous turn when her ex-con husband shows up.

The film features artist Frank Stella as he walks us through his 2012 exhibition “Black Aluminum Copper Paintings” at L&M Arts. The film also features commentary on Frank’s life and career from Adam Weinberg (Alice Pratt Brown Director, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY) and Ann Temkin (Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Curator of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, NY).