NEW YORK, NY.- Kino Lorber announced the New York theatrical premiere of BEUYS, a documentary directed by Andres Veiel, with an exclusive theatrical engagement at Film Forum starting Wednesday, January 17. The film expands to other national markets in February and March, 2018.

Charismatic and controversial German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) was a messianic figure, alternately considered a shaman, a kook, a radical political activist, and a breakthrough artistic genius. Filmmaker Andres Veiel mines a rich trove of never-before-seen archival footage, showing how Beuys’s teachings (at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf), installations (using felt and fat), ‘happenings’ (covering himself in honey and gold leaf in How to Explain Paintings to a Dead Hare or locking himself in a room with a coyote in I Like America and America Likes Me), and lectures (“money shouldn’t be a commodity”) argued for a more expansive view of the role of art in our lives.

Always recognizable in his trademark fedora, Beuys was a visionary who, 30 years after his death, continues to influence artists as well as confound and entertain the rest of us. BEUYS will have a two-week engagement, from January 17 to January 30, at Film Forum.

“Fascinating. A rangy, unconventional ride. A fine, thoughtful documentary.” – Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

“The most extensive revisiting of Beuys’s art and life.” – David D’Arcy, The Art Newspaper

“Folks in the know hold Beuys in similar standing to Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol. Not only offers a psychological portrait of the man, but chronicles the many ways he sought to reverse the effects of our repressive social systems – and how his breakthroughs continue to influence artists today.” – Benjamin Sutton, Hyperallergic

BEUYS (2017, 111 mins.) Directed by Andres Veiel. Produced by Thomas Kufus. Cinematography: Jörg Jeshel. Editors: Stephan Krumbiegel and Olaf Voigtländer. Music: Ulrich Reuter and Damian Scholl. Sound: Hubertus Müll and Matthias Lempert. Archive producer: Moni Preischl. In English and German with English subtitles. Germany. A Kino Lorber release.