The late painter and sculptor Eva Hesse (1936—1970) is widely considered one of the most important and influential figures in postwar American art. In her short but meteoric career, she was known for embracing unusual materials like latex, fiberglass, and plastics. Born to a Jewish family in Nazi-occupied Germany, she fled to The Netherlands in 1938 with her five-year-old sister, without her parents. The family was reunited a year later, and they settled in New York City. In 1946, her mother, who was severely depressed following her divorce from Hesse’s father, took her own life. These traumas had an enduring impact on Hesse’s life and art, as is evidenced in the private journals and notebooks that she kept from late adolescence onward.

Marcie Begleiter’s documentary Eva Hesse presents a vivid sense of the artist’s drive, magnetism, and, crucially, her working methods. Throughout the film, Hesse’s art is positioned front and centre, showcasing her delicately transgressive compositions that brim with dry wit and sexual innuendo. The documentary weaves together reminiscences by close friends with archival footage to offer a deep and sensitive exploration of the artist’s eventful, but immensely troubled life. Hesse’s diary entries and letters, read by actress Selma Blair, immerse viewers in her internal monologue, delving into her creative process and revealing her innermost fears, anxieties, hopes, and ambitions. The film frames Hesse as a sensitive, highly intelligent, and complex person whose trailblazing art practice was also a form of emotional catharsis.

Marcie Begleiter (b. 1954, United States) is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, artist, teacher, and writer, who has worked as a set designer and storyboard artist on numerous television and film productions in the United States and United Kingdom. In 2001, Begleiter published her bestselling book From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process. She wrote a play and directed a short film about Eva Hesse, the latter of which was commissioned by the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Germany for their retrospective of the artist in 2014. Eva Hesse is her first feature film.