Mark of the Hand

Henri Rousseau started to paint in Paris around 1880, at the age of 40. This self-taught artist was friendly with the poet Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay and Pablo Picasso, who recognized his genius, and yet his work was to remain underrated during his lifetime. However, with its dislocated compositions and profoundly dreamlike subject matter, it was to have a decisive influence on modern art, from surrealism to abstract art.

Through a poetic language, "White Noise" seeks to reflect on the whitening processes that Brazil suffered for 130 years, after the abolition of slavery. How it affects our offspring and makes it difficult to search for the identity of black people in a historically racist country.

The pride of Napoleon's victories, the Arc de Triomphe, whose first stone was laid in 1806 at the top of the Champs-Élysées, is, along with the Eiffel Tower, one of the most visited monuments in the French capital. Wanted by an emperor, inaugurated under the reign of a king (Louis-Philippe) and sanctuarized by the Republic, this patriotic temple polarizes the passions of a whole nation. A historical portrait before "packaging", which teems with anecdotes and unsuspected details.

A feature-length documentary portrait of Québécoise painter Johanne Corno, who has lived and worked in New York City for more than 20 years. Ignored by the art intelligentsia in Québec, she settled abroad to escape that creative constraint, and built an enviable international career. Today, she casts a lucid eye on her work and describes the resources she draws on to survive in the jungle of the contemporary art world.

An intimate portrait of Eric Carle, creator of more than 70 books for children including the best-selling "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". At 82, Eric is still at work in his studio making books and creating art. As he methodically layers a tissue paper collage of the caterpillar, he describes the feeling he achieves working in his studio, the sense of being at peace, all alone, when everything grows quiet and it is just himself and his work. The film taps into that deep creative need in each of us, a spirit that started in Eric as a very young child and is unceasing today.

Made in collaboration with the Inuit Tungavingat Nunamini, this film focuses on those dissident members of the Inuit community who rejected the agreement signed on November 11, 1975, between the Northern Quebec Inuit Association, the Québec and federal governments, the James Bay Energy Corporation, the James Bay Development Corporation, Hydro-Québec and the Grand Council of the Crees, which took away Native rights to a territory of almost one million square kilometres. By their words and actions, the dissident Inuit of Povungnituk, Ivujivik and Sugluk express their strong desire to retain their land and their traditions. The filmmakers go into their homes, on the ice and the sea to record first-hand the lives of these northern people.

Samuel Grey Horse, an Indigenous equestrian from Austin, Texas, is known for rescuing horses from being put down. After a riding accident lands him in a coma, Grey Horse experiences an afterlife vision that changes his perspective on the world and his place in it.

In 1960, Utrecht University took over the Studio for Electronic Music from Philips. In this studio in Utrecht, composers and artists worked on their own compositions. In 1961, Jan Vrijman made a film about Karel Appel, De werkelijkheid van Karel Appel, and Appel himself made a musical composition for this film in the studio in Utrecht. Van der Elsken films and photographs Appel during the composition of his Musique Barbare, as well as recording conversations on tape; the film is in fact a kind of collage of film, photographs and sound. As well as an exceptional record of Karel Appel’s working process, this film is a unique documentation of the studio and therefore a significant piece of Dutch musical history.

Artist Taylor Denise sets out to make her first painting, which also happens to be her largest work to-date. As she embarks on this creative process of making shit because it looks cool, she's met with comradery, debauchery, and people's brains interrupting art whatever way they want to-ery.

This short film provides a glimpse at famous art galleries of Rome, Florence, and the Vatican.