Nicolás Guagnini: Self-Portrait with Cucumber / Autorretrato con pepino / 2021

Ego: The Strange and Wonderful World of Self-Portraits / 2010

Laura Cumming takes a journey through more than 500 years of self-portraits and finds out how the greatest names in western art transformed themselves into their own masterpieces.

Autoritratto all'Inferno / 2021

This hybrid piece is a collage created assembling both analog and digital material. Several layers of 8mm films merge to create a camera-less self-portrait of the filmmaker. The first layer is an 8mm orphan film (found footage) from the 1970s of a woman dancing. The second layer is an 8mm found footage film that has been buried in earth for some months. While being covered in earth, the film emulsion has been eaten by the bacterias in the ground, plus some bacterias from yeast and sugar. This technique was originally used by the Schmelzdahin group in Germany. After several weeks in soil, the film gets extracted, rinsed, and scanned via a 4K digital scanner. The third layer is an 8mm home movie that has been first decayed in soil, using the aforementioned technique, then hand-painted with ink.

An Artist's Self-Portrait / 1985

A collective, moving self-portrait of Polish painters of the turn of the century, composed of paintings presented at the exhibition "Symbolism in Polish art" at the National Museum in Warsaw in 1985.

JLG/JLG - Autoritratto a Dicembre / 19958.03 voti

Director Jean-Luc Godard reflects in this movie about his place in film history, the interaction of film industry and film as art, as well as the act of creating art.

Self-portrait with the Device / 1982

"In the 1990 text on his film Autoportrait au dispositif (1981), Lebrat wrote that all his films are in fact self-portraits, including those that are abstract colour films, and the Rothko's painting are the most beautiful examples of self-portraiture in twentieth century art. lebrat notes that the impetus behind self-portraiture comes out of his desire to create another image of his body, which does not necessarily have to be its representation but can suggest another satte of being, for example the infinite and transcendent state aims at overcoming the problem of corps morcelé and mortal flesh." Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof

Self-Portrait at the Graveyard / 1970

Slobodan Šijan captures his own self-portrait with a camera, and then "glues" it to shots of a cemetery with a double exposure.

10 Years Self-portrait / 2001

This project, 10 Years Self-Portrait, started July 1, 1999. The process of this project involves taking one photograph of my face every morning as soon as l wake up. The image changes a bit by a bit as days go by.

Larysa Kadochnykova. Self-Portrait / 2014

The famous Ukrainian actress Larysa Kadochnikova restored her self-portrait and found out about herself. And not only.

Self Portrait: Birth in 47 KM / 2016

Between 1959 and 1961, more than 35 million people starved to death because of Mao’s Great Leap Forward policies. To avoid censorship in China, this painful period is now euphemistically referred to as the “Three Years of Natural Disasters.” This courageous oral history, directed by Zhang Mengqi, tells the story from the point of view of her grandfather’s village, to which she returns every winter to interview survivors. Central is moving voice-overs from a grandmother who details harrowing pregnancies and lonely births during the Great Famine and her granddaughter, a migrant worker. In this agricultural village, the landscape is stark yet beautiful with plenty of room for contemplation. When a hand appears in front of the camera, Zhang transitions into a delightfully playful territory, incorporating a uniquely participatory experience that extends beyond the screen.

Self-Portrait: Building the Bridge at 47KM / 2014

The fifth title in Zhang Mengqi's Self-Portrait film series.

Self-Portrait Along the Borderline / 2023

Anna Dziapshipa was born of the union between an Abkhazian man and a Georgian woman. In Self-Portrait Along the Borderline, she skilfully weaves together unique archives and fragments to offer a personal and political biography of Georgia-Abkhazia relations. This vibrant exploration foregrounds a divided identity caught between the margins.

8mm Portrait Series - Reel #4: Self Portrait on the Way / 1979

No information given.

Self-Portrait: 47 KM 2020 / 2023

As coronavirus begins to sweep the globe, Zhang returns to her father’s village with her camera, seeking to understand where the extraordinary phenomenon might sit in the grand palimpsest of China’s history. As with all of Zhang’s work, this is a committed, reflective, formally assured non-fiction film, grounded in collaboration and blessed with an uncanny sense of unhurried time.

Self-Portrait: Window in 47KM / 2019

The village in the mountains of China that the director has long made the subject of her camera. The traces of memories and landscapes that fade away before one’s eyes. An 85-year-old man is recounting the story of half of his life, while a young girl draws portraits of the village elderly.

Self-Portrait with Three Women / 2010

The 23-year-old director, fresh out of university, lives at home with her mother and grandmother. She rebels against them but also tries to understand the generation gap between them. While she gets angry and questions their expectations of her as a woman (i.e., to marry and have children), she also gropes for the meaning of real love. Along with her mother and grandmother, the three women wring out their loves and hates with explosive strength. The director in her performance piece uses her own body to project the images of her mother, turning her lost loves into springboards, practically jumping out of the screen so she can shout with all her might.

Gainsbourg by Gainsbourg: An Intimate Self Portrait / 2012

Hailed in France as a national treasure, Serge Gainsbourg was beloved both for his music and for being the country’s favorite ’enfant terrible’. This poetic documentary presents Gainsbourg entirely in his own words, accompanied by carefully selected archival footage, including musical performances and Gainsbourg’s previously unreleased personal films.

Belle de nuit: Grisélidis Real, Self Portraits / 2017

This is the fabulous tale of Grisélidis Réal, prostitute and poet, woven together from images and archive material that conjure up her extraordinary life and world. Her writings chart her days spent in a Swiss brothel and her time as an activist in Paris, tracing her political ideals as this impassioned woman took the world by storm. It’s a pure joy to (re)discover her texts here, as if in an exquisitely revised edition.

Self-Portrait: 47 KM's Window /

A small village in the mountains of China where the director continues to shoot for a long time. On the wall of the hut overlooking the valley, the words "XX principle saves China" have been obscured over the years. The director asks a girl what she thinks about the XX part, and the girl asks, "Is there a need to save the country even though there is no war?" An old man talks about his half-life for 85 years, while the girl continues to paint caricatures of old people in the village. The film records more than just the memories that disappear with the old people, the history and economic decline that remain as traces of the landscape. This small village is literally dyed in vibrant colors at the end of the harsh winter. "Self-portrait: Born in 47KM" (YIDFF 2017 NAC) directed by Zhang Mengqi.

Self-Portrait: Dreaming at 47 KM / 2013

This is the fourth film in my self-portrait series. I went back to the village named 47 km in 2013. My grandfather was critically ill, and I accompanied him like accompanied the death. The old people and their memories are like dead leaves. I got familiar with the children and we acted together to build a bookroom in village. Between the solitary old people and the naïve sunshine children, can I find my dream here?