Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s essay on art and mechanical reproduction, the latest documentary feature by novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo takes us to a village near Shenzhen, in southern China, where a cottage industry produces made-to-order copies of Western masterpieces. Exploring the contemporary nature of images and the interconnections between people from different worlds, the film intercuts the life of a Chinese painter copying Caravaggio’s John in the Wilderness (c. 1604) and the life of the Swiss-Italian poet in London who commissioned it.

One of the original camera-journalist-cum-independent-videomakers, Skip Blumberg’s practice is situated between discourses of art, journalism, activism, and guerilla filmmaking. He is a founding member of the Videofreex, a pioneering New York video collective for countercultural movements from 1969 to 1978. This “Culture Beat” program provides just a small sampling of Skip’s prolific output, from his "on-the-ground" participatory style to his travels around the world as an artist, producer, and correspondent.

In this collection of recent work by North Carolina artists Sabine Gruffat and Bill Brown, celluloid film serves as both a material register and a critical resource for interrogating the documentary image. Whether using discontinuous montage, handmade techniques, digital processing, or dramatic re-enactments, these experimental films aim to extend the formal possibilities of non-fiction filmmaking, while depicting such iconic subject matter as Confederate monuments, Earthworks, and the great American road trip.

Vancouver artist Judy Radul presents Michael Snow’s Standard Time (1967) and La région centrale (1971), along with a recorded discussion between her and Snow, as part of the launch of the new location of Catriona Jeffries Gallery. Its inaugural exhibition on Cordova Street is structured as an Unexplained Parade, with each gallery artist inviting a companion artist to exhibit work. Radul’s invitation was to Snow, who has worked for decades at the leading edge of experimental film and visual art.