Film Screening: Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

Directed and produced by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, 109 minutes
Courtesy the directors and HBO
In 1989, on the floor of Congress, Senator Jesse Helms implored America to “look at the pictures.” He was denouncing the controversial art of Robert Mapplethorpe, whose photographs pushed social boundaries with their frank depictions of nudity, sexuality, and fetishism—and ignited a culture war that rages to this day.