These two DVDs were the result of a collaboration between Candlestar Director, Michael Benson and the film director Ken McMullen.

Gustav Metzger

“The importance of Gustav Metzger has been recognised within visual art for decades. It's extraordinary to think that this is the first documentary that has been made about his life and work. This DVD gives us a great opportunity to connect past and present and shows the influence that the work of Gustav Metzger has had on contemporary culture. It also shows what a thoughtful and committed man he still is.”
Sir Christopher Frayling, Chair of Arts Council England

Gustav Metzger witnessed the rise of Nazism as a small child in Nuremberg in the early 1930s. He escaped to Great Britain aged thirteen and trained as a cabinet-maker and an artist before founding auto-destructive art in 1959, which has influenced a generation of younger artists.

The scale of Gustav Metzger’s achievements and his contribution to contemporary culture are clearly demonstrated in this comprehensive film. Gustav Metzger speaks candidly and brilliantly of the influences which have shaped both his own work and the culture of our time. From Vermeer to Freud, from the importance of drawing to a far-reaching discussion of auto-destructive art, Metzger gives profound and lucid insights into the meaning and relevance of art, as well as highlighting the importance of understanding the destructive impulses in human society.

A pioneer in the use of computers in art, Gustav Metzger produced works from 1965 onwards called the Liquid Crystal Light Projections, which were used as the first ‘light shows’ by rock bands Cream and The Who at the Roundhouse, London – and defined the visual culture of the psychedelic era.

Fusing art with politics and social activism, Metzger was a co-founder with Bertrand Russell of the Committee of 100, the anti-war protest group. He convened the now legendary Destruction in Art Symposium in 1966, which featured John Lennon and Yoko Ono amongst others.

John Berger

John Berger is a legendary writer and critic, winner of the Booker Prize and author of one of the most influential books on art of our time, Ways of Seeing.

In this film he travels to the world’s biggest particle physics laboratory at CERN in Geneva to confront physicists with poetry. The film charts an extraordinary and wide-ranging series of discussions and collaborations between Berger and the leading theoretical and experimental physicists John March Russell and Michael Doser.

Whether discussing the development of the atom bomb, the value and necessity of research, or the ghostly theft of one of his gloves at the grave of Jorge Luis Borges, Berger demonstrates why he is one of our foremost cultural figures. He brings an infectious and inspiring curiosity to each encounter to create a refreshingly accessible new perspective to our understanding of the value of science and culture today.