Stockholm International Film Festival 2025

En film av Mary Louise Schumacher

"Out of the Picture" takes us inside the lives of some of the most relevant writers on art today, thinkers who are making sense of a period of unprecedented change to art, media and society. "Out of the Picture" is the first feature-length documentary to be made in the U.S. about one of the art world’s most mysterious figures – the art critic. For more than a decade, we have turned our cameras on critics navigating rapidly changing art and media landscapes, writers such as Carolina Miranda, of the Los Angeles Times; Hrag Vartanian, of Hyperallergic; Jen Graves of The Stranger; Jeneé Osterheldt of The Boston Globe; and Seph Rodney, independent critic. We have conducted interviews with powerful art world personalities, such as artist Catherine Opie; author Sarah Thornton; and critics Roberta Smith, Jerry Saltz, and Peter Schjeldahl. We’ve also rooted our work in deep reporting. While a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, director Mary Louise Schumacher led a national survey of more than 300 arts writers across the U.S., revealing new facts about the art world’s power structures. "Out of the Picture" is poised to prompt a national conversation about the nature of art, modern life, and how meaning gets made in the 21st century.