Collections/March 2026

William Klein’s Subversive Eye

William Klein’s explosive New York street photography made him one of the most heralded artists of the sixties. As an American expatriate in Paris, Klein also made bold, challenging cinema in a filmmaking career that spanned more than forty years. In his three colorful, surreal fiction features— Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? , Mr. Freedom , and The Model Couple —he skewers the fashion industry, American empire, and governmental mind control with hilarious, cutting aplomb, while his essential documentaries Muhammad Ali, the Greatest and Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther capture two of the most galvanizing personalities of his time with electrifying immediacy. Still largely overlooked in the United States, his films are audacious, iconoclastic antidotes to all forms of social oppression.

5 films