News

Xyz Films announced today that film star Alec Baldwin has signed on to play John DeLorean in a series of scripted scenes that will be added to their Untitled John DeLorean Documentary. Supporting roles for the narrative scenes are currently being cast. Baldwin's hair and makeup team from Saturday Night Live have also been enlisted to transform him into the iconic automobile maker.

The film is directed by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce (The Art of the Steal, Last Days Here, Batman & Bill) and produced by Tamir Ardon, Xyz Films and 9.14 Pictures and backed by Ingenious. Production is currently under way, with the narrative scenes to be shot shortly. Sundance Selects is distributing the film domestically, and the film is scheduled to be released in 2018.

A documentary fused with narrative scenes, this portrait of John Z. DeLorean covers the enigmatic automaker's rise to stardom and shocking fall from grace.

Alec Baldwin is stepping into the driver’s seat for Xyz Films’ forthcoming documentary about John DeLorean. The docu will be fused with scripted scenes which will feature Baldwin will playing the iconic automaker. To give him the look of the man who brought us the iconic, cutting-edge car of the ’80s, Baldwin has enlisted the help from his hair and makeup team from Saturday Night Live. The film is directed by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce (The Art of the Steal, Last Days…...

‘American Gods’

It’s been a long time coming, but American Gods is finally here, closing out a month that’s been filled with exciting new shows. With May, though, comes the return of a science program that ought to interest movie fans (Breakthrough) and a new feature documentary that ought to interest comic book fans (Batman & Bill). Plus we’ve finally got a new season of Sense8 and new episodes of some of the greatest TV series, Better Call Saul and Fargo, plus the penultimate chapter of Riverdale’s first season.

To help you keep track of the most important programs over the next seven days, here’s our guide to everything worth watching, whether it’s on broadcast, cable, or streaming for April 30–May 1:

SUNDAYAmerican Gods (Starz, 9pm)

Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel hits the small screen from the showrunning team of Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and screenwriter Michael Green (Logan), and it’s “the adaptation...

A collection of five, five-minute documentaries, "Take 5: Justice In America" tackles significant social justice issues that affect everyday Americans. The series features young filmmakers interested in socially conscious storytelling that can impact the greatest amount of people. The issues explored in the series include voting rights, the plight of the working poor, displacement as a result of gentrification, bail reform and gun violence. See a clip from "A Hug From Paul Ryan," directed by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce ("The Art of the Steal," "The Atomic States of America"), about Tianna Gaines-Turner, one of America's working poor, who shared a personal moment with Congressman Paul Ryan. The clip features an interview with Argott and Joyce edited with clips from the film. Read More: Take 5: Justice in America - Voting Rights Exclusive Clip "Take 5: Justice In America" was originally commissioned and produced by...

9.14 Pictures and Xyz Films will produce Untitled Paris Hilton Documentary, to be directed by Don Argott and Sheena Joyce. Xyz commences sales in Cannes this week.

The authorised documentary will be produced by Hilton, Jamie Freed and 9.14 Pictures, with Xyz Films on board as executive producer and worldwide sales agent.

A production start has been earmarked for Ibiza at the end of summer.

The film will focus on Hilton’s life as socialite, entrepreneur and media icon. The subject will discuss her celebrity and examine her impact on young women.

“Paris Hilton is a modern day Marilyn Monroe – beautiful, iconised, world-famous, shaped by mass media, and misunderstood,” said Argott and Joyce.

“We are thrilled to work with Paris to explore her complicated relationship with the public, the press, and the politics that shape our perception of a modern celebrity.”

Argott and Joyce are best known for such critically acclaimed documentary films as Rock School, Last Days Here and [link...

The most frequent question Curb Your Enthusiasm co-creator Robert B. Weide gets asked is apparently, “When are you going to finish your Kurt Vonnegut documentary?”. Weide started filming the author in 1988, having secured Vonnegut's blessing for a film project as early as 1982. And 33 years on, Weide is finally getting round to using the footage, co-directing Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time with documentarist Don Argott (As The Palaces Burn, The Art Of The Steal). A Kickstarter campaign has just launched, which comes with a trailer."It's going to be amazing," Argott tells Empire. "Bob Weide did the Woody Allen documentary a couple of years ago: a Lenny Bruce documentary, a Marx Brothers documentary... he's been a filmmaker for years. I met him in Kiev and we hung out and hit it off and had known and liked each other's work, and he called me to ask if I'd be interested in...

Happy Endings actor Adam Pally will star in Bad Boys Crazy Girls, an indie about two close friends who are embarrassingly unlucky in love. Directed by Don Argott and Sheena Joyce (The Art of the Steal) from a script by Heather Maidat, Bad Boys Crazy Girls follows Jeff (Pally) and Anne, who embark on a journey of self-discovery when they decide to help each other become "bad" and "crazy." But soon their experiment in modifying their personalities leads to disastrous results. Photos: A Very Long Breakfast With the Cast of 'Happy Endings' Tammy Tiehel is producing. Pally, who

read more...

Today's MPAA ratings bulletin is a little light on intrigue as we get the PG ratings for a pair of animated films in The Lego Movie and The Nut Job and an R-rating for The Art of the Steal, which played the Toronto International Film Festival and already opened up north, but Radius has yet to set a release date for the comedy. The most interesting title is one I had not heard of from Shawn Levy (The Internship) over at Warner Bros. This is Where I Leave You apparently stars Rose Byrne, Connie Britton, Timothy Olyphant, Jason Bateman, Abigail Spencer, Dax Shepard, Tina Fey, Kathryn Hahn, Jane Fonda, Ben Schwartz, Corey Stoll and Adam Driver and centers on a Jewish family that isn't used to observing their faith's traditions, but is forced to fulfill their father's final wish and sit Shivah together for an entire week and confront their problems.

Art21, the non-profit production company behind the show "Art in the Twenty-First Century," has just launched "Artist to Artist," a new web series in which artists interview each other. The first three episodes are available on the series' website and on Art21's Vimeo account. The first three videos show the Brooklyn-based artist of drawings and large-scale sculptures Diana Al-Hadid at the Venice Biennale and Shahzia Sikander at the Sharjah and Istanbul Biennials. In honor of this new series, the people at Art21 have provided Indiewire an exclusive list of their own favorite films about art: "Stolen Art" by Simon Backes I only saw this film once but remember experiencing a shock of not being able to tell if this documentary about an art forger was a real story or a complete fiction. This feeling of doubt resonated so much that I've never tried to find out the truth for myself.

Here is my second tier of material, some curiosities with a mix of fiction and documentary, once again some international names return whom are well-known to cinephiles the world over alongside some relatively new talents all jostling for attention at the celluloid digital maelstrom of TiFF – so let’s continue;

Unforgiven – After a few decades of shameless Western pilfering of Asian cinema it’s fun to see the Oriental market turning the tables, Lee Song-ils transplant of Eastwood’s Unforgiven to Meiji era fuedal Japan could be a big budget blast.

Bastardo – Magical realism gut punches film noir in Nejib Belkhadi’s mystical realignment of urban unrest, with a Tunisian setting which alone makes this a curious sounding enterprise.

Almost Human – The first of many sacrifices for the Midnight Madness crowd, a brutal looking slice of pulp set in the Maine badlands. I do like to mix things up schedule...

Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, one of many Special Presentations at this year's Tiff.

The Toronto International Film Festival has begun to announce its lineup for its 2013 edition, beginning with Gala and Special Presentations. To browse the festival's programming on their web site, visit here.

Gala Presentations

American Dreams in China (Peter Chan, China)

The Art of the Steal (Jonothan Sobol, Canada)

August: Osage County (John Wells, USA)

Cold Eyes (Cho Ui-seok & Kim Byung-seo, Korea)

The Fifth Estate (Bill Condon, USA)

The Grand Seduction (Don McKellar, Canada)

Kill Your Darlings (John Krokidas, USA)

Life of Crime (Daniel Schechter, USA)

The Love Punch (Joel Hopkins, France)

The Lunchbox (Ritesh Batra, India/France/Germany)

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Justin Chadwick, South Africa)

Parkland (Peter Landesman, USA)

The Railway Man (Jonathan Teplitzky, Australia/UK)

The Right Kind of Wrong (Jeremiah Chechik, Canada)

Rush (Ron Howard, UK/Germany)

Shuddh Desi Romance (Maneesh Sharma, India...

One thing is for certain: There will be a little something for everyone at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. On Tuesday morning, the renowned festival released 70 titles set to hit the fest.

The titles with the most buzz include the Allen Ginsberg/Jack Kerouac/William Burroughs biopic Kill Your Darlings, which premiered at Sundance; August: Osage County, starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts and based on the Tony-winning play; the musical romance Can a Song Save Your Life?; and Steve McQueen’s slavery opus 12 Years a Slave, starring Chiwetel Ejofor, Michael Fassbender, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

In Special Presentations,...

SundanceNOW’s Doc Club is in full swing this October with “Music Month,” a curated program of documentaries pertaining to music and musicians, which includes Spike Lee’s “Passing Strange” and the previously mentioned “Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?)” Also on the roster is another great film (and one of this writer’s top picks of 2012), Don Argott and Demian Fenton’s “Last Days Here.” The creative team from “The Art Of The Steal” take a look at the virtually unknown and deeply undersung 1970s heavy rock band Pentagram, detailing their history and the troubled life of frontman Bobby Liebling right as he prepares to do one last album. A fascinating figure who's burnt out, crack-addicted, and living in his parents’ basement while in his mid '50s, the heavy-metal rocker’s life takes an unexpected turn when he falls into a serious...

The Intouchables tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a paralyzed aristocrat (Francois Cluzet), and the young African man from the projects (Omar Sy) who is hired to take care of him. Nominated for nine French Oscars (called the Cesars), the film is the second most successful movie of all time at the French box office. It was picked up by The Weinstein Company around the same time that previous Oscar-winner The Artist picked up critical and audience raves.

The story is based on the true relationship that was covered in a 2004 French documentary called A La Vie, A La Mort. In real life, the aristocrat is named Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, who was paralyzed in a paragliding accident. He became very close friends with his unlikely caretaker Abdel, who is Arabic and from the projects.

I sat down with Olivier Nakache (who was without co-director Eric Toledano) to...

In the film Hysteria, Hugh Dancy plays Mortimer Granville, a dedicated young scientist in 1880s London who practices a new way to intimately treat women for “hysteria.” Under the guidance of Dr. Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), a man who takes his practice of massaging women’s private areas very seriously, Dancy’s scientist falls for the doctor’s daughters Emily (played by Felicity Jones) and the fiery Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal). When his hand gets tired of treating hysteria, Granville helps discover the world’s first vibrator.

I sat down with director Tanya Wexler to discuss her film, the truth behind Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character Charlotte, and why we’re all so hysterical for period entertainment like “Downton Abbey.”

Hysteria opens May 25 in limited Chicago theaters.

It’s fitting that your mom is here, as this is kind of a movie you could see with your mom.

That’s what I say...

Can't get enough of documentaries?

Join us tonight (9pm Et) for the Doc Club Twitterthon, a conversation with festival programmer Thom Powers and streaming service SundanceNOW. Doc Club is a section of Sundance Now's VOD/streaming service, a monthly program curated by various industry members that shines light on the very best of the bunch (this month's theme is "Art For Everyone" which includes Don Argott's "The Art of the Steal" and the tragic "Lost in La Mancha," directed by Keith Fulton).

We'll not only be chatting about the Doc Club service in particular, but also about documentary filmmaking in general. Those interested can join the discussion by following the tag #SundanceNOW and voice their opinions and concerns, not to mention get some sweet swag -- everyone who uses the tag also becomes eligible to win a free year-long subscription to Doc Club.

So get the popcorn ready and let's talk non-fiction.

Below directors Don Argott and Demian Fenton ("Rock School," "The Art of the Steal") share a scene from their rousing music documentary, "Last Days Here." It premiered at last year's SXSW Film Festival and comes out March 2 via Sundance Selects (March 16 on VOD). The Film "Last Days Here" is a film about Bobby Liebling, a fifty-something-year-old rocker who, with the help of friend/fan/manager Sean "Pellet" Pelletier, tries to pull himself out of his parents' basement despite decades of drug addiction and trouble. It’s the unbelievable true story about a man at the crossroads of life and death. The Scene In this scene, Bobby and Pellet clearly state their goals and come up with a plan to help Bobby escape the sub-basement. The interesting thing about "Last Days Here" is that our main characters really have two separate visions for the future. Pellet envisions a...

The subject of "Last Days Here" is an indisputable drug addict, body warped and brain fried by incalculable amounts of crack and heroin. During the opening moments (an excellent sequence which sets up a great deal without feeling at all expository) the man reveals a few fancy shirts he had stored away, flamboyant digs reserved for those stadium concerts his band never actually got to play. "I saved these shirts for when I would get big. And that never happened. So I just saved them forever," he admits not depressingly, but in a poetic, accepting way. His concessible nature takes a much more uncomfortable route once he basically announces his indifference to death, promising only to remain alive for the filmmakers’ sake. "I'm serious," he claims with utter sincerity, "if you want me around, I'll stick around." Unflinchingly honest, Don Argott and Demian Fenton's ("The Art Of The Steal...

Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to the worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we look at alternatives to Fright Night, One Day and Spy Kids 4D.

Remakes, and sequels and adaptations – oh my! This week in theaters another horror remake aims to make you scream, while a novel love story hopes to make you swoon and a family film strives to literally stink up the place. If you crave more retro-fitted horror, romantic dramas and rambunctious kid flicks – we’ve got you covered with a panoply of movies now available online.

Colin Farrell plays the neighbor from hell in this creepy remake about a teen boy (Anton Yelchin) who knows something wicked is lurching next-door. Craig Gillespie directs.

There’s been a ton of horror remakes of late, and some of the more curious cases are currently...

Trailblazing the way for more rap documentaries just as A Tribe Called Quest did for its genre’s musical potential, Beats Rhymes & Life is a passion project by first-time director Michael Rapaport that goes deep into how important the quartet was during the ’90s. As heard in both underground and mainstream rap acts today, the influence of the group (who included members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi White) is still prominent.

I sat down with first-time director Rapaport and Atcq member Phife Dawg to discuss the group’s influence on modern culture, the small existence of rap documentaries, the excitement of rap music in the ’80s, and more.

Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest opens in Chicago on July 15.

There’s a lot of talk in this documentary about respect and influence. Is that an important component to musical history? Are financial numbers equal,...

Cave of Forgotten Dreams – 3D

Directed by: Werner Herzog

Cast: Werner Herzog, Dominique Baffier, Wulf Hein

Running Time: 1 hr 30 min

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: May 6, 2011

Plot: Herzog brings a 3D camera into the Chauvet cave to look at the oldest known human paintings. The filmmaker also speaks with archaeologists to ask what these paintings tell us about our ancestors.

Who’S It For? Fans of Herzog’s documentaries such as Grizzly Man and Little Dieter Wants To Fly as well as anyone who enjoys beauty.

Expectations: Ever since the film started showing at film festivals it’s gotten great reviews. But I really wasn’t sure what to make of a 3D movie about cave paintings.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Werner Herzog as himself: Though he claims to be in the film due to the constraints placed on the film crew, Herzog is always a feature in his documentaries. Both as narrator and sometimes,...

In Plain Sight is back for its fourth season and I've missed the straight talk, the sarcasm, and the quick wit of these characters over the long hiatus.

Mary Shannon claims she's adept at change. Ha! As "The Art of the Steal" has everyone around Mary changing, she's fighting it tooth and nail.

Faber's gone despite their romantic sunset vacation last season.

Apparently thanks to Mary's encouragement he decided to give it another go with his ex. This leads Marshall to point out that Mary prefers a known situation even if it is deeply flawed rather than subject herself to something new that has a better shot at working out.

Is Marshall talking about himself in that scenario?

It looks like he's still wounded from Mary running off with Faber. His claws were out when he ran down the list of Mary's past loves and he couldn't help the dig...

Screening Times: Monday March 14th, 4:30pm (Vimeo Theater), Tuesday march 15th, 2:00pm (Alamo Lamar C), Friday March 18th, 4:30pm (Vimeo Theater)

After their acclaimed investigation of the fate of Alfred C. Barnes‘ multi-billion dollar art collection in The Art of the Steal, Philadelphia-based doc duo Don Argott and Demian Fenton return with Last Days Here, a profile of Bobby Liebling, lead singer of the cult metal band Pentagram, who has lived a hermetic life in his parents basement for decades.

Filmmaker: When did you first hear of Bobby Liebling and when did you know you had to make a movie about him?

Fenton: I had heard an old cassette tape of some of the lost ’70s Pentagram recordings. Those recordings were floating around North Carolina and my friends from a band in Greensboro brought them through when they were on tour. Years later, when the “First Daze Here” compilation was released,...

More deals, more stories covering them.

Deadline learned that Sundance Selects, the studio that brought us The Art of the Steal and Tiny Furniture, have picked up Cindy Meehl’s documentary Buck, which focuses on the life and career of horse whisperer Buck Brannaman. President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films Jonathan Sehring said “Our entire company has fallen in love with Buck. Cindy Meehl‘s funny, deeply inspiring and crowd pleasing film about Buck Brannaman has ignited the passion of audiences in Park City and we’re confident the rest of the country will feel the same”. This is an understandable reason to pick up the feature, considering many people (though not me) love horses. There’s some guaranteed money in this investment.

Deadline also reveals that The Ledge, a thriller starring Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, Terrence Howard and Patrick Wilson, has been picked up by IFC. Hunnam plays a...

Documentaries became a box office factor with the rise of such films as "Hoop Dreams" and "Roger & Me." Before then, there were hit music documentaries like "Woodstock" but most other nonfiction films could expect short runs in few theaters before dutiful audiences. What a small but growing minority of Friday night moviegoers is beginning to discover is that there's a good chance the movie they might enjoy most at the multiplex is a doc.

In alphabetical order, these were the best documentaries I saw in 2010:

"45365" is the zip code of Sidney, Ohio. The brothers Bill and Turner Ross were born there perhaps 30 years ago. They knew everybody in town, and when they spent seven months of 2007 filming its daily life, their presence must have become commonplace. Their film evokes what Winesburg, Ohio might have looked like as a documentary.

The film is privileged. No one is filmed with a hidden camera.

The past year has been a good year for art documentaries. Between The Art of the Steal and Exit Through the Gift Shop, filmgoers have been given a lot to think about in regards to the value of art, why we create art, and even the very definition of art. The Art of the Steal examined how a local government was corrupted by greed, and they saw how art which was meant to be used for education was eventually exploited for profit. Exit Through the Gift Shop examines how the modern day art world changed the medium of graffiti art and altered one man’s life forever.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary that opens following Thierry Guetta, a French clothing store owner living in Los Angeles who has an odd obsession with filming everything he sees. Thierry befriends Invader, a famous graffiti artist, and films Invader’s...

Zac Efron is reportedly attached to the gritty action drama "Die In A Gunfight" for Media Rights Capital, Mark Gordon Company and Efron's own Ninjas Runnin’ Wild production company reports Deadline.

Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari penned the script about a "fight-prone and death-obsessed young society man who pursues a romance with the daughter of his father’s enemy."

The film marks yet another upcoming project by Efron to branch out from his clean-cut "High School Musical" and "Charlie St. Cloud" tween image. His next two projects are starring as a conman in "The Art of the Steal" and a remake of the Swedish drug drama “Snabba Cash”.

Sometimes They Make It Too Easy Tween girl heartthrob Zac Efron is busying attaching himself to projects in an effort to dirty his squeaky clean image. This year has seen the actor--and now producer--link himself to a couple of intriguing projects including the Hollywood remake of the nifty Swedish drug drama "Snabba Cash" as well as con-man tale, "The Art Of The Steal" (not related the documentary of the same name). He's got one more grimy picture to his name. Deadline reports that Media Rights Capital is set to pick up "Die In A Gunfight," a script from newbie writers…...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced fifteen films in the Documentary Feature category which will advance in the voting process for The 83rd Academy Awards.

The list includes: Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, Enemies of the People, Exit Through the Gift Shop, GasLand, Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, Inside Job, The Lottery, Precious Life, Quest for Honor, Restrepo, This Way of Life, The Tillman Story, Waiting for Superman, Waste Land, William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe

Selected from one-hundred and one submissions, the Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting and will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist. Those five will be announced live on Tuesday January 25th.

The biggest surprise is the several high profile omissions from this list - "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,...

The Art of the Steal is one of the most taut political thrillers I have ever seen. The fact that the film is a documentary only lends to its intrigue.

Helmed by Rock School documentarian Don Argott, Art centers on the ups and downs of the world’s grandest Post-Impressionist art collection dubbed The Barnes. Now, admittedly, this simple description was what kept me from moving the film up on my Netflix queue. Sure, it sounded interesting – but I kept favoring flicks that looked exciting. Don’t be similarly fooled. The Art of the Steal is far more engrossing and accessible than I’d imagined. It’s history doc meets heist flick, and it literally kept me on the edge of my seat.

The doc begins by introducing an eccentric but pivotal figure in the modern art world. Albert C. Barnes was a turn-of-the-Century self-made man, who spent his great...

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

Check out my other column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

Centurion Blu-Ray Six Shooter Giveaway!

What I love about modern film distribution is that first-run films are sometimes available to see in your house before you’re able to see them in the theater. Such is the case with Neil Marshall and Michael Fassbender’s newest film, Centurion, which is currently available on VOD, Xbox, Vudu and Amazon.com. Now, Centurion also opens in theaters August 27, 2010 if you care to see it with a bunch of other like minded individuals but I am thrilled to see that the models of getting movies to people how they want, when they want, are evolving.

In honor of Centurion’s recent premiere on VOD, Xbox, Playstation, Vudu and Amazon, I want to offer one of...

The Art of the Steal is a documentary about the art world, which is the perfect combination for an unbearably pretentious movie. Shockingly, this movie is anything but pretentious.The Art of the Stealrails against government corruption, the use of art as a status symbol, and exploitation of art for monetary gain. The Barnes Collection represented good art and art education, and what ultimately happened to the Barnes Collection was the exact opposite of that.

The Art of the Steal follows the real-life story of the Barnes Collection, a multi-billion dollar art collection owned by Dr. Albert C. Barnes. Barnes did not care about whether his art would bring him prestige or move him up another rung on the social ladder. All that Barnes cared about was whether he liked the art, and whether it would further his cause of education. When he first opened his house to the critics,...

Reviewer: James van Maanen

Rating (out of 5): ****

Though The Art Of the Steal gives lip-service to the city of Philadelphia and to the art mavens and corporate culture that -- according to the film -- have stolen the entire Barnes Collection away from its rightful owners and placed it in the hands of sleazebag "connoisseurs," its heart and mind are firmly with the original Barnes Foundation and Albert C. Barnes who began it. This is the man, after all, who managed to amass a collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern art that is now valued at more than 25 billion dollars.

Director & cinematographer Don Argott went to school in Philadelphia and so would seem to know the byways (and alleyways) of big business, fund raisers and local cultural figures and politicians. He puts all of this to good use in his documentary, one of the most anger-producing films I...

The Art Of The Steal

Directed by Don Argott

Not rated

About 100 years ago, Albert Barnes became an art collector. By inventing and patenting Argyrol, the first antibiotic treatment of gonorrhea, Barnes rose from nothing and was a millionaire by the time he was 35. A million bucks was a lot more back then, but he probably didn't need that much to add to his art collection.

Barnes' first Picasso cost him about $100, in part because nobody knew what to think of Pablo and his contemporaries quite yet. And so, Barnes built the greatest collection of modern art before museums dedicated to that very thing.

Today, Barnes' catalog of art work is estimated at over $25 billion, and contains among its 9,000 pieces 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 60 Matisses, 44 Picassos, and 14 Modiglianis. It is unrivaled by any house of modern art in the world. For much of its century, the Barnes Foundation maintained a residence in Lower Merion,...

“The Barnes Foundation would attack…the enemies of intelligence and imagination in art, whether or not those enemies are protected by financial power or social prestige.” – Dr. Albert C. Barnes

Those words begin film maker Don Argott’s documentary, The Art Of The Steal, a chronological depiction of just how those enemies of art can fight back utilizing those very financial powers and social prestiges Dr. Barnes believed they might be protected by. Argott’s film shows how a private collection of billions of dollars of art can virtually be stolen by people in power if they feel those riches are not being used to the best of their ability.

In 1922, Dr. Barnes, an inventor and pharmacist (the man produced a cure for gonorrhea), began acquiring hundreds of pieces of art, art that he believed to be visually or significantly important, not necessarily what was considered the best works by the best artists.

The 33rd Portland International Film Festival announces the Oregonian Audience Award winners. This year’s Festival wrapped up its 18 day run Sunday, February 28th after 195 total screenings at multiple theater locations in the downtown cultural district of Portland. This year’s Festival was attended by over 30,000 attendees and included 77 features and 39 shorts from over 40 countries.

Complete coverage of Piff 2010

Don’t forget to vote for the 8th Annual Tsr Movie Awards

Audience winners include Best Narrative Feature The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Sweden) and Best Documentary Feature The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls (New Zealand). The winner of the Best New Director Award is Hernán A. Goldfrid with Music On Hold (Argentina).

This year’s Short Film Award goes to Portland filmmaker Kyle Bell with the film The Mouse That Soared.

This year’s Piff presenting sponsors include The Oregonian and Regal Cinemas Major sponsors include the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation,...

This weekend at the box office it's a battle between Kevin Smith's first studio comedy Cop Out and Breck Eisner's remake of George Romero's The Crazies. Will Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan make for a bankable combination? Are people getting sick of zombie movies? We'll have the answers to these questions and more come Monday. Meanwhile, in limited release, we have a handful of interesting flicks including the Oscar-nominated French film A Prophet, the Woody Harrelson superhero dramedy Defendor, The Yellow Handkerchief starring Kristen Stewart, and the indie drama Toe to Toe. What will you be watching this weekend? Cop Out [1] The Crazies [2] Defendor [3] (limited) A Prophet [4] (limited) Toe to Toe [5] (limited) The Yellow Handkerchief [6] (limited) The Art of the Steal [7] (limited) Prodigal Sons [8] (limited) [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385867/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455407/ [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1303828/ [4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235166/ [5] http://www.

Breathe easy. This is not a lecture on art history or merely the story of some millionaire's art collection. The marketing people wisely portray the film as a caper movie, a heist thriller, and documentarian Don Argott's profits by this focus. This is not to say that "The Art of the Steal" is a sequel to Jules Dassin's "Topkapi," no, not by a long shot.

As a disclaimer, let me say that when it comes to art, I'm a philistine, a know-nothing, a guy who once looked at Andy Warhol's 1962 painting "Campbell's Soup Cans" and who, until I read the title underneath the exhibit had no idea what it was. But I do know from documentaries and, like my philosophy of art, I know what I like. (Hint: anything by Michael Moore.)

The Art Of The Steal

IFC Films/ Sundance Selects

Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey...

• #12. The Art Of The Steal Director: Don ArgottDistributor: Rights Available. Buzz: I wasn't a fan of Argott's extremely popular Rock School, but when it comes to docs my interest usually lies with the subject, and not previous misfires. Having nothing to do with baseball's Rickey Henderson, playing at both Tiff and highly selective Nyff, if this is being pitched as a whodunit in the art world, I could see as a favorite among the public and as the must see title for doc film buyers. Gotta love the title. This is the film's world premiere screening. The Gist: This art-world whodunit investigates what happened to the Barnes collection of Post-Impressionist paintings—valued in the billions—that fell prey to a power struggle after the death of owner Albert Barnes. Tiff Schedule: Click here for screening times ...

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