by Ben Lewis, UK 2009, 90'
| SCRIPT: Ben Lewis | PRODUCER: Fiona O’Doherty | |
| PHOTOGRAPHY: Frank Peter Lehmann | PRODUCTION: BEN LEWIS TV per ZDF, ARTE, BBC in associazione con DR, SVT, NRK, YLE, AVRO, Australian Broadcast Corporation | |
| EDITING: Simon Barker | ||
| MUSIC: Daniel Pemberton | DISTRIBUTION: BEN LEWIS TV | |
| VOICE-OVER: Ben Lewis |
Presented at The Screen of the Arts 2009British art critic and film maker Ben Lewis, well known for his irreverent and ironic Art Safari television series, spent an entire year studying the inner mechanisms of the international contemporary art market which peaked in September 2008, with the celebrated Damien Hirst auction at Sotheby’s. After the global crisis, prices have fallen by 50%. Lewis has travelled around the world to meet with famous artists, has visited auction houses, art fairs and galleries and has interviewed important dealers, millionaire collectors and art world experts. Exploring the boundaries between business and real passions for art, the documentary reveals the unusual practices, speculations and secrets that are hidden behind the complex and impenetrable phenomenon of the “great bubble”.
Ben Lewis
Graduated in art history in Cambridge and in Berlin, has worked both with musical and documentary projects. He brings his original, amusing and ironical touch to political, historical and cultural themes. In 2001, his King of Communism: the pomp and pageantry Nicolae Ceausescu won the Grierson Award as best historical documentary. In 2006, Hammer and Tickle: the Communist Joke Book won best documentary at Zurich Film Festival.
Selected Filmography
2001 King of Communism: the pomp and pageantry Nicolae Ceausescu; 2003 Art Safari (serie I); 2005 Art Safari (serie II); Blowing Up Paradise; 2007 Hammer & Ticklee: the Communist Joke Book; Art Safari - Affinities.
www.benlewis.tv