Amazon.com
In
Inspirations seven artists from the famous (the late Roy Lichtenstein, David Bowie) to the more obscure (Pueblo sculptor Nora Narango-Morse, French Canadian dancer Louise Lecavalier) discuss why they became artists and what it means to create as both a daily routine and a lifelong passion. Director Michael Apted (
Enough, the
Up documentaries) neatly avoids the usual talking-head format of documentaries by focusing on very visual subjects. Narango-Morse digs mud from the mountains and works it between her toes, glass artist Dale Chihuly instructs urban kids as they turn molten mass into colorful creations, and Lecavalier and partner dance in dramatic staccato, choreographed by film subject Edouard Lock. Revelations are surprising, such as when Bowie extols the calm of waking at dawn since he quit drinking and drugging, and candid, such as when Japanese architect Tadao Ando confesses that the ugliness of his home city Osaka inspired him to add beauty and spirituality to his designs.
--Kimberly Heinrichs
Video Description
Inspirations, from award-winning director Michael Apted (
Gorillas in the Mist,
The World Is Not Enough), is a 100-minute exploration of the creative process that takes off from the essential question, "how do artists get ideas?" and soars into the fascinating worlds inhabited by seven diverse artists--including David Bowie and Roy Lichtenstein--who discuss, sometimes freely, sometimes shyly, just how and why they work the way they do. 100 minutes.