大象传媒

Arena has always been synonymous with creative excellence, unique perspectives and challenging storytelling and this fantastic slate of arts documentaries across 大象传媒 Two, 大象传媒 Four and iPlayer continues that rich tradition.

Under the editorship of Mark Bell, these new commissions will add to the portfolio of the award-winning arts strand and feature acclaimed directors and programme makers with unprecedented access to the best arts stories from around the world.

On 大象传媒 Two

• Nick Broomfield’s My Father And Me offers an intimate memoir of his father, his own beginnings as a filmmaker and a journey into the lost world of industrial Britain
• Werner Herzog’s heartfelt tribute to his friend, the travel writer Bruce Chatwin
• Acclaimed documentary maker Vanessa Engle tracks down art dealer and fugitive con man - Michel Cohen - on the run after swindling over $50 million
• The family of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney talks intimately about his life and inspiration
• Four time Bafta-winner Ben Anthony celebrates the short but brilliant life of artist Keith Haring

On 大象传媒 Four

• Director Dan Vernon goes on the trail of virtuoso musician Ike White
• An insight into the extraordinary life and world of internationally renowned artist Yayoi Kusama
• An eye-popping insight into the late-flourishing career of maverick artist, teacher and performer, Brian Catling
• Turner Prize-winning artist, Gillian Wearing (pictured above), directs a film about the trail-blazing and passionate life and work of George Eliot
• That Summer features extraordinary footage of the Beales of Grey Gardens - shot by Andy Warhol, Peter Beard and Lee Radziwill, the socialite sister of Jackie Onassis
• Femi Nylander, a British-Nigerian poet and activist, travels to West Africa to consider the origins and legacy of Joseph Conrad’s chilling phrase: "Exterminate all the brutes."
• Another chance to see the cult, 80’s voguing documentary, Paris Is Burning.

Speaking at Sheff Doc/Fest, Mark Bell, Commissioning Editor, Arena, said: “Arena is the home of creative single documentaries across the 大象传媒 and on behalf of 大象传媒 Arts, I am really proud to announce this new run of our world-renowned strand which runs on 大象传媒 Two and 大象传媒 Four, featuring films from some of the greatest directors of today and tomorrow.”

Patrick Holland, Controller, 大象传媒 Two, says: “From Werner Herzog and Vanessa Engle to Nick Broomfield and Ben Anthony, 大象传媒 Two works with some of the best directors from across the world. Arena has always been synonymous with creative excellence, unique perspectives and challenging storytelling and this fantastic slate of arts documentaries across 大象传媒 Two, 大象传媒 Four and iPlayer continues that rich tradition.”

Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor, 大象传媒 Four, says: “It’s terrific to see Arena return on such good form, and particularly for the strand to embrace its commitment to bold and experimental film-making so vigorously. 大象传媒 Four has always made itself a home for the most distinctive of British television, and I look forward to Arena being a fabulous partner in that."

EF

大象传媒 Two

Arena: My Father And Me (1x90')

Arena: My Father And Me is an intimate portrait of a father and son relationship as well as a record of the triumph and decline of British post-war industry.

Maurice Broomfield, Nick Broomfield’s father, was the leading industrial photographer, both a source of Inspiration, and conflict, to his son, who later became a documentary filmmaker (Kurt & Courtney, Biggie & Tupac, Whitney: Can I Be Me). From a working class family in Draycott, Derbyshire Maurice left school at 15 and worked at Rolls Royce making copper piping. At times his family knew extreme poverty, but despite hardships his optimism and romantic approach to life shone through his photography of British industry in the 1950's until its decline in the 1970’s. Maurice took Nick to the factories to teach him photography, but his son's interpretation of factory life and the working man was vastly different.

As with many father-son relationships, there was a period of disagreement and conflict, which also produced some of Nick’s most powerful documentary films. This moving story charts the rise and fall of British industry post World War Two whilst offering a unique personal journey of discovery and an intimate portrait of a father son relationship and the continuity of generations.

Arena: My Father And Me was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arena by Mark Bell and is a Lafayette Production for 大象传媒 Arts. Directed by Nick Bromfield, the Executive Producer is Charles Finch. The Producers are Shani Hinton, Kyle Gibbon and Marc Hoeferlin and the Editor is Joe Siegal.

Arena: The $50 Million Art Swindle (1x90')

Sixteen years after his escape from prison, acclaimed director, Vanessa Engle tracks down charlatan art dealer - Michel Cohen - who swindled over $50 million from the art establishment before going on the run.

Michel Cohen, a high school drop-out from a poor background, was a self-invented man, who became a rich and successful art dealer, with homes in Malibu and New York.

Throughout the 1990s, he sold paintings by artists such as Picasso, Monet and Chagall to America’s wealthiest elite. Cohen lived the high life until he began trading recklessly in the stock market and ran up considerable debts. In an attempt to recoup his losses, he swindled private collectors, auction houses and other art dealers out of more than $50 million. When his swindles were discovered, he went on the run with his wife and two small children and in 2003, he was found by Interpol in Brazil and was imprisoned in Rio de Janeiro. Seven months later, whilst awaiting extradition to America, he escaped from prison and vanished off the face of the earth.

Filmmaker Vanessa Engle manages to locate Michel and he shares his extraordinary story of greed, motive and morality.

Arena: The $50 Million Art Swindle (1x90') is a Top Hat Production. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Two by Mark Bell. Executive producer is Darren Kemp. Vanessa Engle is the Producer and Director.

Arena: Nomad - In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin (1x85')

Legendary film director, Werner Herzog pays tribute to Bruce Chatwin in this remarkable and moving film. When writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying, he summoned his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog, asking to see his recent film about tribesmen of the Sahara. In exchange, as a parting gift, Chatwin gave Herzog the rucksack he’d carried on his travels around the world.

Thirty years later, carrying the rucksack, Herzog sets out on his own epic journey, inspired by their shared passion for the nomadic life. Along the way, Herzog discovers stories of dinosaurs, lost tribes, Aboriginal traditions, wanderers and dreamers. From Patagonia, to the Black Mountains of Wales, to the Australian outback, Nomad offers a fitting and thought-provoking tribute to a man whose work explores human restlessness and wandering, borders and exile, and art and objects.

Arena: Nomad - In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin is a 大象传媒 Studios Production. Written, directed and narrated by Werner Herzog. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Two by Mark Bell. Richard Bright is the Executive Producer for 大象传媒 Studios.

Arena: Seamus Heaney (1x90')

A poignant insight into the life and work of Seamus Heaney, one of the greatest Irish poets since Yeats.

Six years after his death in 2013, Heaney's wife Marie, and his three children Michael, Christopher and Catherine, talk about their family life and read some of the poems he wrote for them, and for the first time his four surviving brothers, Hugh, Charlie, Colm and Dan remember their childhood and the shared experiences that inspired many of his finest poems.

Seamus Heaney stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries; Death Of A Naturalist, his first collection of poems published by Faber and Faber (the first of twelve) in 1966 announced the arrival of a major new talent, and his reputation grew and grew until he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. How the first of nine children of a cattle dealer in County Londonderry became one of the finest poets of his generation is an astonishing story of talent and perseverance.

Admired and revered far beyond UK and Ireland, Heaney spoke to a whole generation of younger poets in America, many of whom he taught as a visiting professor at Harvard in the 1980s and 90s. He strode the international stage, with commentaries on Dante and Virgil, as well as a complete new translation of his beloved Beowulf, but his deepest debt was to his family, and to the landscape in which he grew up.

Arena: Seamus Heaney is a DoubleBand Films production in association with Lone Star Productions for 大象传媒 Arts, 大象传媒 Two and 大象传媒 Northern Ireland made with funding from Northern Ireland Screen. The Executive Producer is Michael Hewitt. Adam Low is the Director. Dermot Lavery and Martin Rosenbaum are the Producers.

Arena: Keith Haring (1x75')

International art sensation, Keith Haring, blazed a trail through the legendary art scene of 1980s New York and revolutionised the worlds of pop culture and fine art. This fascinating and compelling film - told using previously recorded interviews that form the narrative of the documentary - is the definitive story of the artist in his own words.

The film also includes exclusive unprecedented access to the Haring Foundation’s archives, including Haring’s encyclopaedic collection of polaroids - and features everyone from Andy Warhol to Madonna and Grace Jones - capturing the wild, creative energy behind some of the most recognisable art of the past fifty years.

Following Keith Haring’s diagnosis with Aids in 1989, he asked writer and art critic John Gruen to write his biography. For five days in the summer of 1989, Keith gave Gruen in intimate and candid detail the story of his life and these interviews are included in the film.

Haring’s closest friends, family and collaborators - from the sleepy Pennsylvania of his youth to the mythic clubs of gay New York - share their revelatory encounters, touching poignantly on the Aids crisis, which made a tragic icon of this life-affirming artist.

Arena: Keith Haring is a 大象传媒 Studios Production. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Two by Mark Bell. Ben Anthony is the Director. Alice Rhodes is the Producer. Janet Lee is the Executive Producer.

大象传媒 Four

Arena: Cindy Sherman #Untitled (1x60')

In this witty and revealing film, Cindy Sherman - widely recognised as one of the greatest living contemporary artists - grants a rare interview to award-winning director Clare Beavan.

Across four decades, Sherman has used props and cameras to create a breath taking array of invented characters, from screen siren to clown, to ageing socialite, that evoke a range of emotions from shock to amusement. Sherman appears in almost every photograph she takes, yet shies away from the media spotlight and practically never appears on camera.

Along with rare access to the artist herself, this film speaks to artists, curators and those closest to her throughout her life and career.

Arena: Cindy Sherman #Untitled (1x60') is a 大象传媒 Studios Production. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Two by Mark Bell. Clare Beavan is the Producer and Director. Janet Lee is the Executive Producer for 大象传媒 Studios.

Arena: The Changin’ Times Of Ike White (1x77')

Filmmaker Dan Vernon and Producer Vivienne Perry track down virtuoso musician Ike White, who made an extraordinary journey from life behind bars to industry adulation before he vanished.

Ike played in a San Quentin prison band, with his talent reaching the ears of legendary producer Jerry Goldstein, who believed Ike was the next Jimi Hendrix. Goldstein persuaded the Prison Governor to allow a recording studio into the jail and they created an album that’s viewed as lost classic of soul and funk - Changin’ Times. A huge campaign led to Ike's release but then he disappeared.

The filmmakers spent 18 months searching for Ike before finding him hiding out using a pseudonym in San Diego, California. Vernon spent the week with Ike, who shared his incredible story of one man’s battle to retain his humanity in America’s most notorious prison.

In this compelling film, Vernon pieces together the many versions of Ike, finding a trail of wives, lives and identities.

Arena: The Changin’ Times of Ike White (1 x 77) is an Erica Starling film. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Four by Mark Bell. Dan Vernon is the Director. Vivienne Perry is the Producer. Rachel Hooper is the Producer for Erica Starling. Alison Millar is the Executive Producer.

Arena: That Summer (1x80')

This remarkable film reveals the bohemian lives of some of the residents of Montauk, Long Island in the early 1970s.

Directed by acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson, That Summer centres on the film artist Peter Beard initiated together with the incandescent Lee Radziwill about her relatives: The Beales Of Grey Gardens. Lost for decades, this extraordinary footage re-emerges in Olsson's documentary, which focuses on Peter Beard and his family of friends, who formed a vibrant and profoundly influential creative community in Montauk (Long Island) in the 1970s. Featuring Peter Beard, Lee Radziwill, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouvier Beale, Andy Warhol.

Arena: That Summer is a 大象传媒 Arts acquisition for 大象传媒 Four, produced by Story AB, Louverture Films and Final Cut for Real. Göran Hugo Olsson is the Director. Tobias Janson, Joslyn Barnes, Signe Byrge Sorensen, Nejma Beard are the Producers.

Arena: Kusama - Infinity (1x60')

Japanese contemporary artist, Yayoi Kusama’s work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from her peers and those in power in the art world. Kusama was an underdog with everything stacked against her - the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II; life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions; sexism and racism in the art establishment and mental illness.

Kusama overcame countless odds to bring her radical vision to the world stage and created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation art, performance art, poetry, and novels. After working as an artist for over six decades, people around the globe are experiencing her Infinity Mirrored Rooms in record numbers, as Kusama continues to create new work every day.

Arena: Kusama - Infinity is a 大象传媒 Arts acquisition for 大象传媒 Four. Written, directed and produced by Heather Lenz.

Arena: Brian Catling (1x60')

The vision and imagination of Brian Catling - English sculptor, poet, novelist, film-maker and performance artist - are celebrated through new archive material and exclusive interviews, with recreations of past events and performances.

Catling was born in 1948 and raised in the slums of post War London. An internationally lauded sculptor, he created the memorial monument to the victims of beheading, on the Site of Execution at the Tower of London. He is also holds the post of Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford and is a fellow of Linacre College and author of fictional work, The Vorrh Trilogy.

Arena: Brian Catling is an Anti-Worlds Rook Films production. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Four by Mark Bell. Geoff Cox and Andy Starke are the Directors.

Arena: Everything Is Connected - George Eliot’s Life (1x60')

Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates George Eliot’s legacy in this unique new Arena documentary with an original score by Adrian Utley from Portishead. Just as George Eliot’s Middlemarch explored the lives of ordinary men and women, Gillian Wearing’s experimental film is made up of a diverse cast of people from different backgrounds, and features Jason Isaacs and Sheila Atim as the narrators. Together with writers, actors and local people from Nuneaton, Coventry and London they read extracts from George Eliot’s novels, letters and the first-hand accounts of those who knew her. This fascinating documentary will paint a polyphonic and unique portrait of the novelist’s unconventional life and reveal the woman behind the literary mask.

Arena: Everything Is Connected - George Eliot’s Life is a 大象传媒 Studios Production. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Four by Mark Bell. Artist Gillian Wearing is the Director. Martina Hall is the Producer. Janet Lee is the Executive Producer for 大象传媒 Studios.

Arena: Paris Is Burning (1x60')

Another chance to see the Award-winning legendary documentary about a group of people united by their competitive love of clothes and dance. Referring to themselves as The Children, their everyday lives are transformed at night. By day, they are cycle-messengers, shop assistants, prostitutes or unemployed. By night they are members of clubs or houses with exotic names: House of Chanel, House of St Laurent and House of Ninja. They meet in the streets and in each other’s homes, where they compete through dancing and the clothes they wear.

Arena: Paris Is Burning was directed by Jenny Livingston

Arena: Exterminate All The Brutes (1x90')

Femi Nylander, a young, black British-Nigerian poet and activist who graduated from Oxford University in politics, is haunted by the ghosts of colonialism that he believes the world refuses to face. He travels across West Africa in search of the origins of Joseph Conrad’s chillingly immortal phrase: "Exterminate all the brutes". His encounters and discoveries along the journey suggest a surprising and poetic way out of colonialism’s lingering Heart of Darkness, towards the Light.

Arena: Exterminate All The Brutes (1x90') is an Inside Out Production. It was commissioned for 大象传媒 Arts and 大象传媒 Four by Mark Bell. Rob Lemkin is Director and Producer. Geoff Arbourne is Producer. Lisa Marie Russo, Mark Bell and John Battsek are Executive Producers.

Related Media Centre Links

• 大象传媒 Arts announce new Werner Herzog commission Arena: Nomad - In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin