Paris: The Luminous Years

FAIN: TI-50071-07

WNET (New York, NY 10019-7416)
Margaret Smilow (Project Director: November 2006 to June 2009)
Andy Halper (Project Director: June 2009 to June 2012)
Catherine Cevoli (Project Director: July 2013 to February 2023)

Production of a two-part, two-hour documentary film series about art and culture in Paris between 1905 and 1930.

PARIS: THE LUMINOUS YEARS is a two-part, two-hour series for public-television broadcast in 2008. Its subjects are Modernism and the birth of 20th-century culture. Between 1905 and 1930, Paris was regarded as the artistic center of the Western world, the locus of much that was innovative in the arts as the avant-garde there overthrew centuries of academic tradition in nearly every artistic discipline. Twentieth-century art and culture are thought to have been born -- or at least significantly advanced -- in Paris, but their lineage is international. To the artists who lived and worked there during these luminous years, Paris-as-Place was all-important. The significance of place is therefore the organizing theme of this visually rich documentary that asks, Why Paris?

Associated Products

Paris: The Luminous Years (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Paris: The Luminous Years
Writer: Perry Miller Adato
Director: Perry Miller Adato
Producer: Perry Miller Adato
Producer: Junko Tsunashima
Producer: Kristin Lovejoy
Abstract: From 1905 to 1930, decisive years for our contemporary culture, Paris was the epicenter of a storm of modernism. Catalyst and magnet for radical innovation and experiment, the city on the Seine was a gathering point for young creative talent from Michigan to Moscow, from Brooklyn to Barcelona. In twenty-five years they revolutionized the arts of the Western world, creating "new and fascinating forms that have become a rich part of our lives today." On-camera, dramatic and historic moments come alive in rare archival interviews, as they are recalled by participants in these legendary events, including Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Aaron Copland, Marcel Duchamp, Janet Flanner, Tristan Tzara and Sylvia Beach. In the art world's first international avant-garde, the film spotlights keys figures, tracing who came to Paris and why, their friendships, collaborations and rivalries, what they made there and how being in Paris during the luminous years transformed them and their work.
Year: 2010
Format: Film
Format: DVD

Prizes

Cine Golden Eagle
Date: 1/1/2011
Organization: CINE

Special Jury Award "Remi"
Date: 1/1/2011
Organization: Houston Worldfest

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