Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

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An Emmy and Peabody-winning public television series on the life and work of most influential American artist of the second half of the 20th century.

Produced by Steeplechase Films, directed by Ric Burns, and featuring an Emmy Award-winning script by James Sanders and Ric Burns, Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film is a two-part, four-hour portrait of the best-known and most influential American artist of the second half of the 20th century. Narrated by Laurie Anderson, the series—which also received a George Foster Peabody Award—was the first to explore the complete spectrum of Warhol’s artistic output, stretching five decades from the 1940s to his untimely death in 1988.

The movie is an entirely absorbing, occasionally revelatory portrait of a brilliant talent driven to greatness by an inner chorus of demons and angels.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Hypnotic, powerful and revealing.
New York magazine
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A biography of Warhol himself, the series is also a portrait of the artist’s time and place: the smoky industrial Pittsburgh of his youth, but above all the glamorous New York of his adult career, from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. The city of his imagination and dreams as a young artist, New York became the setting and inspiration for his own transformative cultural impact, which extended far beyond his artwork to encompass the extraordinary studio environment he created—The Factory, on East 47th Street—which in turn became home to a pioneering mix of art, music, film, fashion, and style, defining the creative spirit of the city in his own time and beyond.

Watch Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film: Part 1, here. Part 2, here.

Awards

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Emmy Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction Writing for James Sanders and Ric Burns, 2006

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Nonfiction Series, 2006

George Foster Peabody Award, 2006

Media

Portrait of the Artist as a Visionary, a Voyeur and Brand-name Star,” Stephen Holden, New York Times, 9/1/2006: E8.

PBS Documentary Looks at the Andy Warhol’s Complex, Fascinating life,” Sheila Farr, Seattle Times, 9/20/2006

Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film,” Phil Gallo, Variety, 8/31/2006

Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film,” Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, 8/30/2006

240 Minutes of Fame,” Ed Halter, Village Voice, 8/22/2006

Credits
  • Directed by:
    Ric Burns
  • Written by:
    James Sanders & Ric Burns
  • Narrated by:
    Laurie Anderson
  • Produced by:
    Steeplechase Films
    Donald Rosenfeld
    Daniel Wolf
  • Presented by:
    American Masters
    WNET/Thirteen
  • Photo Credits:
    Photofest
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