Michael Blackwood Productions is an independent production company that has produced over 150 documentaries on the arts and its contributors, with a focus on architecture and architects, art and artists, dance and choreographers, and music and composers. The collection features over 1,000 participants or subjects, and spans over six decades of documentation, beginning in the 1960s and including earlier material, through the second decade of the 21st Century. The films serve as primary documents for educational and archival purposes, as well as informative and special interest pieces for the general public. A growing number of educational institutions, libraries, museums and various media outlets are acquiring the films around the world. The company is dedicated to preserving the underlying material, and digitizing its analogue portfolio. The collection itself is one of the largest and most significant of its kind.
"Cecil Balmond: Visionary Engineer and Architect" is a compelling documentation of a unique thinker and practitioner at the height of his architectural career. Through his conversation with architecture theorist and critic, Sanford Kwinter, Balmond reveals his ... (more)
"Cecil Balmond: Visionary Engineer and Architect" is a compelling documentation of a unique thinker and practitioner at the height of his architectural career. Through his conversation with architecture theorist and critic, Sanford Kwinter, Balmond reveals his ... (more)
Gathering inspiration from the world around him, Claes Oldenburg has dedicated his career to giving objects life. What many would see only as their mundane, everyday tools Oldenburg sees as an opportunity for art. His famed large scale sculptures stand with such ... (more)
Gathering inspiration from the world around him, Claes Oldenburg has dedicated his career to giving objects life. What many would see only as their mundane, everyday tools Oldenburg sees as an opportunity for art. His famed large scale sculptures stand with such ... (more)
As an architect, educator, and philosopher, Louis Kahn played a prominent role in the history of 20th century architecture. An examination of six of his most significant buildings: The Salk Institute; the Kimbell Art Museum; the Center for British Art; the library ... (more)
As an architect, educator, and philosopher, Louis Kahn played a prominent role in the history of 20th century architecture. An examination of six of his most significant buildings: The Salk Institute; the Kimbell Art Museum; the Center for British Art; the library ... (more)
Filmed at his final lecture as Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Bernard Tschumi: Architect and Theorist documents a compelling and driven discussion of space, time, and movement. (more)
Filmed at his final lecture as Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Bernard Tschumi: Architect and Theorist documents a compelling and driven discussion of space, time, and movement. (more)
The band of American artists known as the New York School toyed with tradition and rebelled against the Renaissance.Feeling as though free association yielded their best results, the painters, poets and performers of the New York School took a surrealist approach ... (more)
The band of American artists known as the New York School toyed with tradition and rebelled against the Renaissance.Feeling as though free association yielded their best results, the painters, poets and performers of the New York School took a surrealist approach ... (more)
In Alvaro Siza: Transforming Reality Portugal's renowned architect reviews his work with architectural historian, Kenneth Frampton. While touring his projects Siza discusses his approach to architecture, explaining that it is centered around the idea that setting ... (more)
In Alvaro Siza: Transforming Reality Portugal's renowned architect reviews his work with architectural historian, Kenneth Frampton. While touring his projects Siza discusses his approach to architecture, explaining that it is centered around the idea that setting ... (more)
Georg Baselitz: Making Art after Auschwitz and Dresden explores the artist's brilliant career through his 2007 retrospective exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts. Accompanied by curator Norman Rosenthal, who first exhibited paintings by Baselitz in the ... (more)
Georg Baselitz: Making Art after Auschwitz and Dresden explores the artist's brilliant career through his 2007 retrospective exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts. Accompanied by curator Norman Rosenthal, who first exhibited paintings by Baselitz in the ... (more)
"Frank Gehry: An Architecture of Joy" illustrates the unique intertwining of art and architecture throughout Gehry's spectacularly eclectic career. In this portrait, Gehry explores his work of the 1990's including The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Frederick R ... (more)
"Frank Gehry: An Architecture of Joy" illustrates the unique intertwining of art and architecture throughout Gehry's spectacularly eclectic career. In this portrait, Gehry explores his work of the 1990's including The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Frederick R ... (more)
The New Modernists: Folds, Blobs and Boxes, Architecture in the Digital Era approaches the topic of artistic technological advances, and the modern architects who were educated with this new influx of electronic techniques. In this detailed portrait we visit the ... (more)
The New Modernists: Folds, Blobs and Boxes, Architecture in the Digital Era approaches the topic of artistic technological advances, and the modern architects who were educated with this new influx of electronic techniques. In this detailed portrait we visit the ... (more)
This retrospective exhibition gives brilliant insight into the artist’s work of the last 4 decades. Credit for this highly sensitive selection of Morris’ work goes to Rosalind Krauss, who curated the exhibition. We invited artist and curator to come back to the ... (more)
This retrospective exhibition gives brilliant insight into the artist’s work of the last 4 decades. Credit for this highly sensitive selection of Morris’ work goes to Rosalind Krauss, who curated the exhibition. We invited artist and curator to come back to the ... (more)
In 1969, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped 2.5 kilometers of coast and cliffs up to 26 metres along the coast of Little Bay, in Southeast Sydney, Australia. (more)
In 1969, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped 2.5 kilometers of coast and cliffs up to 26 metres along the coast of Little Bay, in Southeast Sydney, Australia. (more)
Ed Ruscha made his very first art in his native Oklahoma, but soon became attracted to Los Angeles . Curator Margit Rowell has examined his extensive body of work and created a brilliant exhibition of his seldom seen drawings. Rowell visits Ruscha in his studio, ... (more)
Ed Ruscha made his very first art in his native Oklahoma, but soon became attracted to Los Angeles . Curator Margit Rowell has examined his extensive body of work and created a brilliant exhibition of his seldom seen drawings. Rowell visits Ruscha in his studio, ... (more)
Meier guides the viewer on a retrospective of his white buildings, from private houses of the 1960s to the Frankfurt and Atlanta Museums of the 1980s--all variations on his trademark spatial and planar treatment. His influences from Corbusier, Wright, Mies, and ... (more)
Meier guides the viewer on a retrospective of his white buildings, from private houses of the 1960s to the Frankfurt and Atlanta Museums of the 1980s--all variations on his trademark spatial and planar treatment. His influences from Corbusier, Wright, Mies, and ... (more)
"Permanent Change" looks at the history and development of plastic within the architectural world. Capturing both a series of lectures and a panel with prominent names such as Steven Holl, Beatriz Colomina and Werner Sobek, this documentation observes detailed ... (more)
"Permanent Change" looks at the history and development of plastic within the architectural world. Capturing both a series of lectures and a panel with prominent names such as Steven Holl, Beatriz Colomina and Werner Sobek, this documentation observes detailed ... (more)
"Post Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Structural Engineering" presents a series of detailed lectures during which the past, present and future of metal is discussed. Speakers such as José Rafael Moneo, Mabel Wilson and Steven Holl bring forth examples of the ... (more)
"Post Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Structural Engineering" presents a series of detailed lectures during which the past, present and future of metal is discussed. Speakers such as José Rafael Moneo, Mabel Wilson and Steven Holl bring forth examples of the ... (more)
Seven choreographers work tirelessly to both question and embrace their chosen form, producing work that celebrates the strange, startling and poetic beauty of dance and performance. Curated by Gia Kourlas. Narrated by the choreographers. (more)
Seven choreographers work tirelessly to both question and embrace their chosen form, producing work that celebrates the strange, startling and poetic beauty of dance and performance. Curated by Gia Kourlas. Narrated by the choreographers. (more)
Accentuating the effects of space, light and structure, glass has become an architectural staple that encourages transparency and visibility throughout a variety of landscapes. After its role in the last century's call to a radical new architecture and urban life, ... (more)
Accentuating the effects of space, light and structure, glass has become an architectural staple that encourages transparency and visibility throughout a variety of landscapes. After its role in the last century's call to a radical new architecture and urban life, ... (more)
"Solid States: Concrete in Architecture and Structural Engineering" offers examples and insights into the ever-adapting possibilities of concrete. With the participation of prominent architects and engineers such as Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori and Bernard Tschumi, ... (more)
"Solid States: Concrete in Architecture and Structural Engineering" offers examples and insights into the ever-adapting possibilities of concrete. With the participation of prominent architects and engineers such as Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori and Bernard Tschumi, ... (more)
Hans Haacke is a key figure in contemporary art whose work intersects with conceptual, pop, minimal and land art. The artist is particularly known for his research into the hidden economies and politics of the art world and the repressed histories of places and ... (more)
Hans Haacke is a key figure in contemporary art whose work intersects with conceptual, pop, minimal and land art. The artist is particularly known for his research into the hidden economies and politics of the art world and the repressed histories of places and ... (more)
Best known for her drawings of the ocean and the galaxies of the night sky, Vija Celmins has solidified herself as one of the most important artists of the postwar generation. Stepping back from painting in order to explore her photorealistic drawing style, Celmins ... (more)
Best known for her drawings of the ocean and the galaxies of the night sky, Vija Celmins has solidified herself as one of the most important artists of the postwar generation. Stepping back from painting in order to explore her photorealistic drawing style, Celmins ... (more)