THE GATES

It was the biggest art project ever seen in New York: "The Gates" lit up the winter darkness of New York’s Central Park with thousands of brightly-coloured gateways. Long-time city residents and artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude first imagined "The Gates" in 1979, and asked Albert Maysles, pioneer of the cinema vérité movement, to document the process. Little did they know that it would be 26 years before their work would finally be installed: for 16 days in February 2005, the 7,503 saffron-coloured gates transformed the Manhattan park into a fascinating open-air museum.

Featuring meetings between Christo and Jeanne-Claude and civic groups and city officials as they try to pitch "The Gates", which did not receive official blessing until 2003, the film closely follows the developments: from the construction of the numerous orange gateways and fabric panels to the reactions of those who attended the opening. "The Gates" themselves are done justice by Mayles' quiet lyricism, which communicates their strange power - a true work of art about a work of art.

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