Poster of the film Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot

Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot

Documentary English


Prolific South African artist and filmmaker William Kentridge chronicles how he creates intricate, wall-sized charcoal drawings of the vistas from his childhood in Johannesburg and life-sized paintings of himself — all while ruminating on the puzzle of self-knowledge.

Director:William Kentridge

Guild Reviews

Image of scene from the film Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot

Chaos and creation in the studio

FCG Member Reviewer Uday Bhatia
Uday Bhatia | Mint Lounge
Sun, November 17 2024

This series of video essays is a brilliant dissection of William Kentridge’s artistic practice and a lively covid diary

A portly white-haired man walks into the frame and, even before he’s sat, addresses the camera with some urgency. “Before he arrives, there are some things I just want to say. It’s about the nature of the structure of, and the destructure, and the non-structure of what we see." He lists the disparate thoughts running through his head: a green cake he once ate in Naples, the fish pie he must take out of the freezer, a line from Mayakovsky, digging in The Great Escape and as a young boy on the beach, a row of coffins for mass burial, the impending birth of his granddaughter

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