Christian Boltanski: Dead or Alive

A quirky film about leading French artist Christian Boltanski, who has built an international reputation for installations based on his meticulous display of old photographs and found objects. Playing humorously with the conventions of art films and what it means to be an artist, Boltanski is filmed working on large projects like Dispersion, a vast installation of discarded clothing alluding to the Holocaust, a haunting presence in much of his work owing to his Jewish roots, and also his famous, ever mesmeric shadow puppet theatres. This visually audacious film conveys the sheer complexity of the relationship between individual experience and milestones in history.