Director
A look at at the life and work of Robert Mapplethorpe, a world renowned and controversial photographer, who died of AIDS in 1989. It explores his photography, his relationship to the downtown New York art world, and the gay S&M club scene prevalent in the eighties. His infamously explicit pictures of the gay, leather, New York Underground were considered groundbreaking and made him a cause celebre. Mapplethorpe’s portraits, flowers, erotic subject matter and artistic presentation, elevated the photograph to serious art, worthy of exhibition in galleries and museums.
Director
This documentary features Nan Goldin’s celebrated 1996 mid-career photography retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Goldin’s exhibition filled an entire floor at the Whitney Museum with pictures that chronicle her involvement and fascination with the alternative, “downtown” culture of New York City, Boston, Berlin, Tokyo, etc. Culled from a period that spans more than 25 years of taking pictures, Goldin’s desire to make a visual diary of her friends and lovers, as well as her own life, makes for a moving, highly charged, visual experience.
Director
Hannah Wilke, upon Tschinkel's suggestion, cuts fellow artist, Claes Oldenburg's hair, which is taped for Tschinkel's Manhattan Cable TV show, Inner-Tube Video. This memorable piece reflects a caring relationship.
