Like hundreds of millions of people around the world, the US-based artist and photographer Paul Pfeiffer is captivated by live, large-scale sporting events. However, unlike most faces in the crowd, Pfeiffer is far less interested in the final score than the sophisticated choreography and emotional manipulation that characterises these grand productions, and extends far beyond the playing field. This short from the documentary series Art21 explores Pfeiffer’s video work Red Green Blue (2022), which documents the production infrastructure that usually goes unseen at a University of Georgia college football game – from the cues of the band leader to the work of the ‘Director of Fan Experience’. The resulting film forms a unique anthropological look at live sports as both a mass media spectacle and group ritual.
Video by Art21
Director: Ian Forster
video
Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
video
War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
6 minutes
video
Technology and the self
How the magic of photography brought Victorian England closer to the spirit realm
16 minutes
video
Home
An artist endeavours to bring the Moon down to Earth in a ritual of yearning
5 minutes
video
Information and communication
An animation built from road signs is a whirlwind study of flash communication
2 minutes
video
Art
Creating art that was aware of itself – and the viewer – made Manet the first modernist
15 minutes
video
Biotechnology
It’s our responsibility to engineer corals that can weather the world we’ve created
11 minutes
video
War and peace
A century later, can poetry help us make sense of the First World War’s horrors?
9 minutes
video
Language and linguistics
The little Peruvian guide to public speaking that conjures up a grandiose world
7 minutes