The arts—from the visual and fine arts to music and literary arts—have always served to reflect and amplify culture and community. The arts can also serve as a way of giving voice to the marginalized, a function that is sometimes met with outrage, suppression, censorship, and even destruction. NOMA’s Arts in Peril Film Series examines fundamental questions about the production of art and who decides what art is and can be in modern societies.

Films in this series will be screened during Friday Nights at NOMA programming and on select Saturday afternoons. The selections include:

• Saturday, September 2 (2 p.m.): Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)
• Friday, September 8 (7 p.m.): F for Fake (1973)
• Saturday, September 9 (2 p.m.): The Rape of Europa (2006)
• Friday, September 15 (7 p.m.): Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2015)
• Saturday, September 23 (2 p.m.): Exit through the Gift Shop (2010)
• Friday, September 29 (7 p.m.): Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2013)

ABOUT EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

An amateur French videographer obsessed with chronicling graffiti and street artists documents Banksy, Shephard Fairey, and Invader, at work. Camera-shy Banksy, who refuses to be shown on screen unless he is blacked out, discovers that the self-professed filmmaker, Thierry Guetta, has no intention of actually using the footage in a documentary. Ultimately Banksy decides to use the footage and adds additional material to make his own movie about Thierry’s journey in this project. (2010 | Rated R | 1 hour, 27 minutes)

Watch the trailer: