Dir/Wri: Ali Ray | UK Doc
The Impressionists are the most popular artists in the world today. On the whole their paintings are relatable, unchallenging and easy on the eye with their agreeable images. Yet when Impressionism first became a style it was ridiculed and rejected.
This new arthouse documentary not only recounts the riveting story of passion and rebellion which gave birth of the world’s favourite art movement, it is told from the perspective of the painters themselves, through their shared letters and diaries, offering unparalleled and intimate access to their thought processes and methods.
In this way we are able to better understand these avant-garde creatives, how their minds worked and how they broke down the barriers in the pivotal years that led up to the opening of the doors of Nadar’s Studio with their own radical exhibition back in Paris on April 15, 1874. And why they eventually became the all time favourites amongst aficionados and collectors alike.
Ali Ray, best known for her art films Klimt and the Kiss My National Gallery, and Frida Kahlo takes her camera and a selection of well known critics and curators to Paris’ Musée d’Orsay and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC to look at this fascinating trans-Atlantic exhibition and bring it to a global audience in cinemas and eventually at home. @MeredithTaylor
IN UK CINEMAS from 18 March 2025