The best Laurie Anderson’s documentary movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Laurie Anderson’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Laurie Anderson.
Feminists: What Were They Thinking?
7.1/10
In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
Heavy Petting
6.1/10
HEAVY PETTING is a hilarious and salacious exploration of the sexual mores of the 50's as seen through the eyes of a generation that lived through the Sexual Revolution. Creative baby boomers-- including musician David Byrne, performance artist Spalding Gray, comedian Sandra Bernhard, radical activist Abbie Hoffman, and poet Allen Ginsberg-- candidly recall their sexual coming-f-age tales in intimate interviews. Joyously campy and refreshingly carefree, HEAVY PETTING blends humorous, unbelievable footage of unhelpful sex-ed films with classic snippets of THE WILD ONE and Elvis' hip gyrations, not to mention Bernhard talking about playing "doctor", always observant Ginsberg on a disastrous encounter with a girl, and Byrne on the childhood myths of masturbation. Eternal mysteries such as the female orgasm, the universal appeal of Marilyn Monroe, and the rituals of high school are laid bare by this lovable group of characters.
Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait
6.8/10
A chronicle of the personal life and public career of the celebrated artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel.
The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family'
5.8/10
Featuring inverviews from: Afrika Bambaataa, Ashford & Simpson, Jackson Browne, Kim Burell, Taylor Dayne, Carmen Electra, Faith Evans, Roberta Flack, Joel Gray, Kc & the Sunshine Band, Eartha Kitt, Patti Labelle, Queen Latifah and more?
Heart of a Dog
7/10
Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
Uncle Howard
7/10
When Howard Brookner lost his life to AIDS in 1989, the 35-year-old director had completed two feature documentaries and was in post-production on his narrative debut, Bloodhounds of Broadway. Twenty-five years later, his nephew, Aaron, sets out on a quest to find the lost negative of Burroughs: The Movie, his uncle's critically-acclaimed portrait of legendary author William S. Burroughs. When Aaron uncovers Howard's extensive archive in Burroughs’ bunker, it not only revives the film for a new generation, but also opens a vibrant window on New York City’s creative culture from the 1970s and ‘80s, and inspires a wide-ranging exploration of his beloved uncle's legacy.
Sisters with Transistors
7.4/10
Think of early electronic music and you’ll likely see men pushing buttons, knobs, and boundaries. While electronic music is often perceived as a boys' club, the truth is that from the very beginning women have been integral in inventing the devices, techniques and tropes that would define the shape of sound for years to come.
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film
7.8/10
Ric Burns unearths rarely seen footage and offers keen observations on the life and artistic influence of Andy Warhol.
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
7.1/10
A riveting and emotional journey into the world of writer William S. Burroughs, a man considered as cold as an iceberg on a winter night.
Music
7.6/10
The story of music and the music industry told through interviews with musicians, composers and producers across genres.
All Star Video
A compilation of avant-garde artwork and talent of the mid to late 20th century hosted by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
John Peel's Record Box
7.4/10
John Peel's Record Box is a documentary film made by Elaine Shepherd, released on 14 November 2005 on Channel 4. It was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award. It is about a small private collection of the British radio DJ John Peel who died in 2004 at the age of 65. Peel's main archive contained more than 100,000 vinyl records and CDs. This smaller private collection, however, contains 143 singles - some of them doublettes - stored in a private wooden box representing some of his personal favourites. According to the documentary, there are no singles by Peel's favorite group, The Fall, because he kept them in a separate box. The film features interviews with John's wife Sheila Ravenscroft, radio DJs and artists like Mary Anne Hobbs, Sir Elton John, Ronnie Wood, Roger Daltrey, Fergal Sharkey, Jack White, Michael Palin and Miki Berenyi.
John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It
7.3/10
This 56-minute documentary on America's most controversial and unique composer manages to cover a great many aspects of Cage's work and thought. His love for mushrooms, his Zen beliefs and use of the I Ching, and basic bio details are all explained intelligently and dynamically. Black Mountain, Buckminster Fuller, Rauschenberg, Duchamp are mentioned. Yoko Ono, John Rockwell, Laurie Anderson, Richard Kostelanetz make appearances. Fascinating performance sequences include Margaret Leng-Tan performing on prepared piano, Merce Cunningham and company, and performances of Credo In Us, Water Music, and Third Construction. Demystifies the man who made music from silence, from all sounds, from life.
Homeland: The Story of the Lark
A distilled, up-to-the-minute portrait of our agitated nation, its politics, its economics, its delusions and its dreams. Laurie Anderson's tone is less outraged than elegiac, mourning for lives lost, ideals misplaced. The music is dramatically stripped down to a handful of players, centered around Anderson's haunting violin and voice, frequent Bill Frisell band-mate Eyvind Kang's viola and Peter Scherer's keyboards.
Peter Gabriel - So
7.6/10
This addition to the acclaimed & award winning Classic Albums series tells the story behind the making of Peter Gabriel's 1986 album "So". It was Gabriel's fifth solo album and the first one to have a title (the others all having just been called "Peter Gabriel" ). The album spawned a number of hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic including "Sledgehammer", "Big Time", "Don't Give Up" (a duet with Kate Bush) and "In Your Eyes" which drove "So" to multi-platinum sales, the No.1 spot in the UK and No.2 in the US. So was very much an album of the MTV generation and the distinctive videos for tracks like "Sledgehammer", "Red Rain", "Big Time" and "Don't Give Up" were key factors in the album's success.
Talk Normal
At the '87 Tokyo International Video Biennale, held at Spiral Hall, performance artist Laurie Anderson gave the unforgettable lecture-demonstration, "Talk Normal". In "Talk Normal", Anderson discusses the many elements that distinguish her work, from the unique violins that serve as her alter egos, to her video clone, to her experiments with electronics and her personal homage to Oscar Schlemmer's Bauhaus dances. Through excerpts from the film Home of the Brave, the television program What You Mean We?, and the music videos for her songs O Superman and Sharkey's Day, Anderson draws you into an eclectic world where sight and sound are united. In "Talk Normal", New York's best known performance artist talks about herself.
Home of the Brave
7.9/10
Home of the Brave is a 1986 American concert film directed by and featuring the music of Laurie Anderson. The film's full on-screen title is Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson. The performances were filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, NJ, during the summer of 1985.
The film included appearances by guitarist Adrian Belew, author William S. Burroughs (who famously briefly dances a slow tango with Anderson during one song), keyboardist Joy Askew, and percussionist David Van Tieghem. Also, Barry Sonnenfeld, who was early in his movie-making career, receives an early film credit for operating second projection camera on this film.
Sphinxes Without Secrets
Since its inception, performance art provided a forum for those artists whose work challenges the dominant aesthetic and cultural status quo. In "Sphinxes Without Secrets", performers, curators and critics unravel the mysteries of performance art and ponder the world women confront today.
The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros
The Sensual Nature of Sound portrays four New York based composers and performers in terms of their musical lives and artistic passion. Though Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk and Pauline Oliveros are all pioneers in American music, each composer pursues a distinct direction of her own. Their rehearsals and performances show a common pursuit of lyrical storytelling through which a new set of contemporary narratives has been forged. Through body, sound, movement and composition, these women have forged their own path through the wild world of modern music.
Call Us Ishmael
7.2/10
Each and every year hundreds of people flock to New Bedford, MA in bleak mid-winter to partake in a celebration like none other. They read this single book out loud over the course of two full days without stopping. All of these people have one thing in common: they are obsessed with Moby Dick, the book that most call the Great American Novel.
