“Squaring the Circle,” the story of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell, the creative geniuses behind the iconic album art design studio responsible for some of the most recognizable album covers of all time, opens at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center Aug. 18.
Continuing is “Showing Up.”
Celebrated photographer, creative director and filmmaker Anton Corbijn’s first feature documentary “Squaring the Circle” tells the story of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell, the creative geniuses behind the iconic album art design studio, Hipgnosis, responsible for some of the most recognizable album covers of all time. They formed Hipgnosis in Cambridge during the ferment of the sixties and became rock royalty during the boom time of the seventies. They conjured into existence sights that no one had previously thought possible, produced visuals which popularized music that had previously been considered fringe, and were at the white-hot center of the maddest, funniest and most creative era in the history of popular music. During this period, record companies didn’t dictate to acts like Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Paul McCartney what their LP covers should look like — Storm and Po did. They made money; they lost money. They did great things; they did silly things. They fell out bitterly; they made up. They never played a note, but they changed music.
“Squaring the Circle” is not rated and is showing at the Ross through Aug. 31.
From the rising tensions of a make-or-break week of a Portland artist getting ready for a big show, filmmaker Kelly Reichardt carves a profound, gorgeously layered portrait of a woman that is as much about what makes up a life as it is about making art in “Showing Up.” Michelle Williams shimmers with complexity as Lizzy, who is trying to hold things together when they keep trying to fall apart. Her hot water heater is busted, her brother might be going off the rails, her divorced parents are exasperating in their own separate ways, she’s surrounded by free spirits at the arts college where she works, and all this lies just below the raw surface of the work that feeds her soul.
It is through Lizzy’s deeply relatable, often comical, everyday tribulations on her way to a longed-desired achievement that Showing Up becomes a quiet tour de force. Out of pressurized moments of absurdity and inspiration, out of crazy-making yet sustaining relationships, there emerges the beautiful, wondrously jagged shape of a person’s life.
“Showing Up” is rated R for brief graphic nudity, and is showing at the Ross through Aug. 24.
Learn more about the films, including show times and ticket availability.
