WORKS
Here are descriptions of Lana's films, some short trailers of the documentaries and links to view full versions.
Click on images to view trailers.
Click on “Click to View Full Film” to view films.
ANDY WARHOL
1973. 54 min.
This 1973 film shows Warhol, on camera, at his most talkative and in his inimitable style, discusses life, society, money and art. Revealing his uncanny instinct to pick up what's in the air, what's the pulse of things to come.
Lively exchanges with Philip Johnson, Barbara Rose, as well as insights from friends, superstars and art world figures, give an unflinching look into the personality of Warhol and his art.
LARRY RIVERS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
1992, 79 min.
In the forty years that Larry Rivers has been a prominent artist, jazz musician and recently author, he has been known for his outspokeness, irreverence, and wit. Here Rivers is seen as a pivotal artist of this century. In his signature style, Rivers appropriated images of historically established masterpieces and transformed them according to his personal vision. The result is a bombastic display of his superb figurative technique. Interviewed in the film are River’s dealer Pierre Levai, art historian and critic Sam Hunter, author Arnold Weinstein, his ex-wife Clarice, his children, Gwynne, Emma and Sam, and Rivers himself.
LARGE SCALE PROJECTS: CLAES OLDENBURG/COOSJE VAN BRUGGEN
1992. 56 min.
by Lana Jokel and Nicholas Doob
He’s reserved and quietly driven; she’s energetic and outspoken. Together they explore the mystery and power of everyday objects by changing their sizes, shapes and textures in surprising and unsettling ways. Oldenburg and his wife and artistic collaborator, van Bruggen, have created many projects carried out in collaboration with the American architect Frank Gehry. The film shows various works from conception to installation including “Spoonbridge and Cherry” in Minneapolis, “Dropped Bowl with Scattered Slices and Peels” in Miami, “Knifeship” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and “Binocular Building” in Venice, California.
CHINESE HAND LAUNDRY AND FIELD OF WASTE
1995. 45 min.
Huang Yong Ping and Chen Zhen, two Chinese avant-garde artists, come to New York to create and oversee their installation works at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in 1993.
The story behind their journey to the West, 20 years preceding the emergence of the contemporary Chinese art scene. Through their art, the artists are exposing their own psychic and their mental luggage, carried from the past. And in a poignant sense, conveying the universality of people and races in the world.
STRONG-CUEVAS SCULPTURE - Revised
2002/2021 51 min.
The sculptural language of Strong-Cuevas originates from the basic form of the human head. Whether simplified through the use of contours and profiles, or by the reduction of details in the case of the monumental works, her abstract faces symbolize a universal human condition throughout time.
Donald Kuspit: " Strong -Cuevas's sculpture invites us to turn inward - to identify with her contemplating heads - and encounter the primitive visionary self deep within us."
Phyllis Braff: " ... the ambitious program of seeking a sculpture that blends architecture and perfectly keyed abstraction with the potent emotionalism resulting from the human-face themes."
NO TRAILER
STRONG-CUEVAS SCULPTURE II
I LIKE TO BE AWED
2021 47 min.
In 2021, a follow-up film was made.
“Creation begins with a wish, a desire to do something, to make something,to see beyond the immediate reality. If we are lucky, it will open a door to a stream of thought that is inspiration. We inspire, we breathe in ideas.”
“With telescopic eyes looking out to the universe, my work suggests space exploration. Communication through space and time is what I seek to express, linking the ideas of the past with those of the future. The human face is the symbol I use…”
CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART: ARTISTS WORKING IN CHINA
2004. 58 min.
While most westerners have at least a basic familiarity with traditional Chinese art, the isolationism and restrictive policies of the post-war years precluded a contemporary art scene from flourishing in China. A new storm of change has swept across China in recent years, and has nourished an astounding flowering of innovative, energetic and challenging contemporary art. This documentary links the three thousand year old tradition of Chinese art with the very latest accomplishments of the visionaries of Chinese art today.
CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART COMES TO AMERICA
2004. 57 min.
Today Chinese artists are everywhere. Their work is some of the freshest and most engaging to be seen anywhere, and it is more appealing than ever to Western curators and collectors alike. Often ambitious in scale and experimental in nature, this work reflects the unprecedented changes in China’s economic, social and cultural life over the past tumultuous decade. This film focuses on ground-breaking exhibitions of this new Chinese art. Included are photography, video art, and installations. Insightful comments from curators, historians, collectors and the artists themselves give historical perspective to the works.
CAMERA AND MIRROR - HOWARD KANOVITZ
2007. 28 min.
A look into the realm of Kanovitz's work in 2007, when much of his work changed and evolved into something very new.
Kanovitz: "Abstract Expressionism used to turn me on to the mysteries of life. I painted colors and shapes exhumed from the subconscious and were confirmed by what was considered "Art". In the photographic realism of my later work, nothing important changed, except that I began to paint things, not just colors and shapes. The complexity and range of possibility expanded. The impulse was the same."
A MOMENT IN TIME
2016. 96 min.
Andy Warhol had introduced Lana to a number of Hamptons artists. In the 1990's, she decided to film a series of impromptu interviews with some of these artists who had reached their mid-careers or beyond. This was conducted in the casual settings of their studios, homes and exhibitions.
They spoke about their ideas and work process; reflecting, revealing and musing whatever came to mind. It was the spontaneity, openness and enthusiasm captured at that 'Moment in Time' that gives a rich tapestry of creative talent in the Hamptons and beyond.
THE WAY IT GOES
2017. 56 min.
“The Way it Goes" is a documentary film on the artist Nathan Slate Joseph. His work is about expansion and contraction, statements of destruction and reconstruction, comprised of rusted sheets of steel and chosen objects. The works, vibrant in color, are cut, bent and welded into shapes and wall reliefs. The film shows the creative process.
Interweaved with the art are scenes through the decades; of family life, art world events and figures, and the artist himself, intense, creative, outspoken, funny and real.
KEITH SONNIER: NOT JUST NEON
2019. 34 min.
Filmed at several locations, Sonnier takes us from an auto-body shop explaining the transformation of a 1950’s Oldsmobile into neon work, then to his Bridgehampton studio discussing his work process from sketches and maquettes into neon art pieces. Next we see Sonnier at his exhibition at the Pace Gallery where he carries on a dialog with director Douglas Baxter. The last segment invites us to the exhibition at the Parrish Museum where he reminisces and recounts influences on his earlier works and his childhood. Finally a site specific neon work that floats and dances on the hallway ceiling like sky writing.
HAL BUCKNER - ART IS HOW YOU SEE IT 2020. 57min.
Christina Strassfield: “The line just emanated from his mind to the material and it really transformed the space. His interest in the female figure is something we talked about.”
Alexandra Giordano: “Buckner’s artwork may provide a new platform, a space where women in all their beauty and their sexuality exist. Not having to choose between good or bad but standing as females who are neither full of grace nor those who have fallen. Instead they require the viewer to reexamine her place in his story.”
NO TRAILER
JANE WALENTAS MEMORIAL EVENT 2021. 60min.
A Memorial Tribute to artist, philanthropist, and former art director, JANE WALENTAS (1944-2020) who dedicated herself for more than 25 years to restoring the historic carousel in Dumbo, the former industrial area she and her husband David developed and transformed into a flourishing New York City neighborhood.
This is the story of a remarkable woman who, with artistic vision, relentless hard work and tenacity, gave her all to so many, with generosity of spirit and love. Above all, she was also a loving wife and mother.
NO TRAILER
JANE WALENTAS - TRIBUTE
(1944-2020) 2021 18:20 mins
A documentary tribute of this remarkable woman who dedicated herself for over 25 years to restoring the historic carousel in Dumbo, the former industrial area she and her husband David developed and transformed into a flourishing New York neighborhood.
With artistic vision, relentless hard work and tenacity, she gave her all to so many with generosity of spirit and love.
NO TRAILER
CHIANG CHING - A DANCE JOURNEY
1991 30:23 mins
Documentary of a Chinese girl who escaped Communist China to become a movie star in Hong Kong, married with a son while enduring hardship and traumatic incidents. Eventually fled to the West to return to her first passion as dancer and choreographer, opening her her own dance company.
This was her dream fulfilled.
NO TRAILER
CHINA REVISITED - TWO SISTERS JOURNEY HOME
2000 56:06 mins
A nostalgic personal journey of filmmaker and her sister to China, 50 years after their departure from Communist China.
The film relocated family members for interviews. Also using archival footages, photos, locations shooting, capturing the China in 2000, all the while going down memory lane.
NO TRAILER
LANA - MEMORIES
2021 21:26 mins
A glimpse of the filmmaker’s early Chinese background, Brazilian years as refugee from Communist China. Studies and travels in USA and abroad. Settling finally in the USA.
The video using family photos and clips, as well as with friends and artists over the years around the world, to reveal a personal story…
NO TRAILER
A QUIET MAN (1913- 1991)
1990 20:08 mins
A remembrance and 70th birthday tribute to the filmmaker’s father.
NO TRAILER
TIME REMEMBERED
2022 18:06
Video of a house preserved, constructed in the 1980’s with material shipped from Germany and built on a spectacular location in Manalapan, Florida.
The present owner retaining all the features and enjoying the beauty of it all.
NO TRAILER
THREADING THE NEEDLE
2022 20:54 mins
At The Church in Sag Harbor, this video celebrates “Threading The Needle”, an exhibition of contemporary art using fabric and fiber practices. The exhibition features works by 44 artists from around USA, Africa, Europe and South America. Featured works centers around themes of body and its distortions, politics, gender identity, race, technology, fashion, design, webbing and stitching. The displayed work raises questions about all of the above and more…
NO TRAILER
FIGURES TRANSFORMED
2022 59:30 mins
At Southampton Arts Center FIGURES TRANSFORMED showcases the works of three artists from different generations who use the figure as the central imagery in their work. Deborah Buck uses anthropomorphic and imagery figures to create an other-worldly environment that beckon us to participate in a world beyond ours. Hal Buckner utilizes the female figure to empower, celebrate and alter the art historical canon. Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas focuses on the figure’s head as a representation of the whole, exploring inner consciousness, outer space and communication through space and time.