Oh Oh I’m In Trouble, Someone’s Come Along And Has Burst My Bubble… THE GREAT CONTEMPORARY ART BUBBLE, 2008 – Ben Lewis (BBC FOUR)

 

Courtesy of www.theage.com.au

Louis Theroux had better watch out, there’s a new boy in town and he’s every bit as quirky, charming and insightful. He goes by the name of Ben Lewis, ordinary sounding enough, but he’s got some edgy glasses and is even partial to some hat-wearing. And if that’s not interesting enough, he’s taking on some of the most influential people in the art world – a few billionaires, that’s all!

Making money is art - Andy Warhol famously declared back in 1975, but what Lewis is investigating in The Great Contemporary Art Bubble is how art itself became such big business. Why does a seemingly blank canvas now fetch upwards of $5million dollars, what’s so great about phamaldahide and why does nobody at Sotheby’s want to explain the absurdity of modern art prices to a very polite Ben Lewis?

Running back and forth between London and New York, Lewis interviews leading art dealers, collectors and market analysts in a bid to discover the reason behind the greatest rise in the financial value of art in history. Prices were increasing at an incredible rate and the art world seemed immune from economic forces. Peaking in May 2008, just months later it all came to a standstill when the bubble burst in October that year.

Despite many rejection letters from potential interviewees, Lewis successfully lifts the veil of secrecy- albeit for a brief sixty minutes – and reveals to us a world of speculation and underhand practice.

A documentary that offers food for thought for cynics and modern art-lovers alike. Coming out with lines Louis would be proud of – (a particular favourite of mine), I worry that neon is the cheese sandwich of contemporary art - this film is definitely one to watch, and so is Ben Lewis.

Click here to find out more.

What’s Left? MY LEFT HAND – a documentary film by Joshua Isaac

Making a film wouldn’t be most people’s first port of call having just been diagnosed with the big C but for Joshua Isaacs, this was the perfect way to express himself. And so, My Left Hand is the story of a young father felled by epithelioid sarcoma, a cancer so rare that Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, which specializes in rare malignancies, saw only 16 patients between 1982 and 1995. But more than that, it is a valiant effort to make spiritual sense of his suffering. 

Six years after the cancerous lump was removed he found himself once again having to battle the illness. As well as naturally contemplating what his future holds, he explores his emotions, doubts, fears, and faith in God and Judaism as he endures chemotherapy, radiation, and the amputation of his left hand.

Beyond darkness and desperation we have all come to associate with the word cancer, the film ends by ultimately celebrating life, something there can never be enough of.

Click here to find out more.