Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present (2012)

Performance art is a hell of a medium to work with.  More times than not, the artist has to push the boundaries of what is considered art.  It's not like splashing some paint on a canvas, taking some pictures, dancing in the ballet, or spray painting a wall, it's something that is going to get a reaction out of you in a completely different way and Marina Abramović has mastered that since the 60s!  In this documentary about the life of the often times misunderstood and extreme performance artist from Serbia, we get to see pretty much all of her art dating back to her early days.  Marina has done everything from flog herself bloody on her knees while topless to carving an upside down pentagram into her belly while full naked to running into a wall at full speed (also, while fully naked) to something more simple like sitting and staring at museum goers from across a table for hours and hours.  There is nothing that Marina hasn't done for the name of art and performance to evoke an emotional response from her audience and she has been a staple in the New York art scene for decades now and is arguably the most respected in her medium.  Lucky for us, her medium involves a ton of nudity from her and plenty of other artists who are in her orbit in the art world.  Marina gets naked, but also inspires nudity from others, such as director/actress Josephine Decker, who pops her dress off out of a sign of respect at Marina's Museum of Modern Art exhibit to reflect some vulnerability back at Marina, but gets promptly escorted out of the display!