A Portrait Of Love

For the past seven years, cartoonist Sean Martin has brought to life the characters of 'Doc and Raider', two gay men in a committed relationship who deal with AIDS, homophobia and everyday life in the nineties. The documentary, using the framework of a Calgary gay rodeo that Sean Martin participates in each year, looks at the influences on Martin's work and the search for his own space within the gay community.

In Sound Cage: A Portrait of Katalin Ladik by Kornél Szilágyi (also known as Igor Buharov), the many languages of Serbian-Hungarian poetess, actress, and visual artist Katalin Ladik come together. There is a language we all understand, of Ladik telling the story of her life.

Called a disruptor, navigator, transformer and visionary, Moana Jackson was many things to many people. Towards the end of his battle with cancer he sat down to talk about his life and groundbreaking work in Māori criminal justice and constitutional reform with broadcaster and ‘niece’.

Between studio and tour, the philosophy of Swiss violinist Tobias Preisig is omnipresent: to go beyond the boundaries of traditional violin playing.

This exclusive portrait is the first to portray North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il, with interviews of North and South Korean politicians, as well as close relatives and former employees who have fled the regime.

A powerful and intimate portrait, Joan Mitchell: Portrait of an Abstract Painter captures Mitchell's independent spirit and testifies eloquently to Mitchell's art. Joan Mitchell was born in Chicago in 1926 and died in Paris in 1992. After graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Joan settled in New York City in 1950. She was an active participant of New York's dynamic Abstract Expressionist scene and hung out with fellow painters Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston and, soon, poets Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler and John Ashbery. In the mid-fifties, she moved to Paris, France. There she was part of a circle of friends that included Pierre Matisse, Samuel Beckett and Alberto Giacometti. Mitchell is one of the great abstract painters of the 20th century. This elegantly edited documentary weaves interviews with the acerbic Mitchell and other leading painters and critics while letting her stunning pictures dominate the film.

Frequently marginalized within a community that already struggles against marginalization -- that is, the gay, lesbian and bisexual community -- African American transgender males make their voices heard in this film from Kortney Ryan Ziegler. Six articulate black transmen -- who are also artists, students, husbands, fathers, lawyers and teachers -- speak candidly about race, gender, body image and status.

Shot over the course of a year, this intimate portrait of provocative composer John Adams presents scenes of the artist at work and at play against the backdrop of dramatic American landscapes that reflect the themes of his music. Though he has a number of credits to his name, Adams is best known for his unconventional opera "Nixon in China," which explores the former U.S. president's meeting with Mao Zedong in 1972.

Interviews with and performance footage of conductor Sir John Barbirolli

An autobiographical account by a gay San Franciscan covering his childhood in the city, his memories of the 60's, and experiences in the Peace Corps in Latin America, as well as his response to being diagnosed with ARC and what he has been doing since that time.

Profiles on the creative processes of Dale Messick, Cathy Guisewite, Nicole Hollander, and Lynda Barry, preceded by a brief overview of early female comic strip artists.

A profile of Nobuo Fukuda, a chef blending Japanese and western styles.

In this up-close biography, gourmet chef Guy Martin describes the influences and career stops that helped inform his eclectic approach to cooking -- from his start in a pizzeria to his triumphant stewardship of the legendary Grand Véfour restaurant. Always exploring new possibilities, Martin has continued to transform the world of cooking and has been named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by France's minister of culture.

Lang Lang is already an undisputed international star of the piano. A "Wunderkind" like Mozart, Lang Lang is a demi-god in China and a superstar in the rest of the world. Portrait of An Exceptional Artist reveals not only a piano prodigy, but also a deeply involved artist and mentor. From his lessons in China, to his master classes in France, the passing of his expertise to others is central to Lang Lang's life and work. This documentary lets us discover Lang Lang from the thread of his childhood to the daily life of an artist of international renown. Concert performances produced in conjunction with Sony Music.

A childhood portrait of Derek Jarman.

In the first documentary feature film made in Gaza, Gaza Ghetto highlights the historical precedents of war, dispossession and military control that influence a family's daily life in Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp. Intimate scenes --a child is born, a grandmother dies -- are inter-cut with visits to the architects of the Israeli military occupation. Ariel Sharon, Benyamin Beneliezar and soldiers on patrol candidly discuss their responsibilities.

Nancy Noel was a renowned painter, a visionary in her business, and an activist in her life. Nancy Noel created not just paintings, but a life that became her art’s inspiration. Through her images and their creation, we see the world as Nancy saw it.

Posted on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List in 1977 for his involvement in bombings perpetrated by the United Freedom Front, he was arrested in 1984. From his prison cell in 1992, the political prisoner Raymond Luc Levasseur writes 'My Blood is Quebecois' in which he explains his rebellion and his radicalization by his status as a 'frog' and the racism he witnessed in a small mill town of Maine where his ancestors came to work in the factories. Released in 2004, he returned to his native Maine where he tells us about his career, from his childhood in a French Canadian family until today.

Black ink, gray wash, and white paint, applied by the invisible hand of the artist, take turns to expose Berenice Sarmiento Chávez’s humble background and the threat of violence in her home country that pushed her to immigrate to the United States.