Laurie Anderson

Acting

Laurie Anderson

Born 1947-06-05 · Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA

Laura Phillips Anderson is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects.

Acting credits

The Rugrats Movie poster
6.3

The Pickles family welcome a new arrival, Dil, whose constant crying and need for attention quickly exhaust the other toddlers. Seeking to return the "broken" baby to the hospital, the gang embarks on a journey in a Reptar Wagon that inadvertently veers off course, leaving them stranded in a vast, dangerous forest. While facing off against escaped circus monkeys and a predatory wolf, Tommy must overcome his own resentment to protect his brother and make it back home.

The Rugrats Movie

1998

Eno poster
6.0

Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno — known for producing David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, among many others; pioneering the genre of ambient music; and releasing over 40 solo and collaboration albums — reveals his creative processes in this groundbreaking generative documentary: a film that’s different every time it’s shown.

Eno

2024

Nova '78 poster
NR

Resurrected through UK-led archival restoration NOVA 78' shows never-before-seen footage of the legendary Nova Convention where William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Zappa, Ginsberg and more collided in an explosion of ideas, art and rebellion.

Nova '78

2026

Thank You Very Much poster
7.8

Andy Kaufman's provocative comedy often outraged audiences, challenging them to confront their own presumptions. Through never-before-seen footage and intimate recollections, filmmaker Alex Braverman explores Kaufman’s brief but impactful life and career. As the lines between performance and reality blur in our present age, Kaufman’s genius resonates more than ever.

Thank You Very Much

2025

Feminists: What Were They Thinking? poster
7.5

In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.

Feminists: What Were They Thinking?

2018

Buke & Gase poster
NR

In 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when tours were canceled and all live music went silent, one band refused to stay quiet. The musical duo Buke and Gase performs to the eerily empty, famed hall Basilica Hudson.

Buke & Gase

2023

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within poster
6.5

A riveting and emotional journey into the world of writer William S. Burroughs, a man considered as cold as an iceberg on a winter night.

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

2010

Heart of a Dog poster
6.5

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

Heart of a Dog

2015

Garland Jeffreys: The King of in Between poster
NR

Garland Jeffreys, the mixed-race Brooklyn native whose music defied industry norms, receives long-overdue recognition in this enlightening documentary. His unique fusion of folk, soul, and rock earned him accolades abroad, yet left him underrated at home. Jeffreys’ story, narrated from his NYC home and featuring interviews with fans like Harvey Keitel, Laurie Anderson, and Vernon Reid sheds light on the life and artistry of an unclassifiable talent.

Garland Jeffreys: The King of in Between

2023

The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family' poster
9.0

Featuring inverviews from: Afrika Bambaataa, Ashford & Simpson, Jackson Browne, Kim Burell, Taylor Dayne, Carmen Electra, Faith Evans, Roberta Flack, Joel Gray, Kc & the Sunshine Band, Eartha Kitt, Patti Labelle, Queen Latifah and more?

The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family'

2002

Sisters with Transistors poster
6.9

Think of early electronic music and you’ll likely see men pushing buttons, knobs, and boundaries. While electronic music is often perceived as a boys' club, the truth is that from the very beginning women have been integral in inventing the devices, techniques and tropes that would define the shape of sound for years to come.

Sisters with Transistors

2021

Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOpera poster
9.2

Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016

Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOpera

2016

Brainwave poster
9.0

Launched in 2008, Brainwave pairs celebrities from many walks of life; actors, musicians, comedians, choreographers, filmmakers, artists, and authors, with leading neuroscientists and other experts to explore how the human mind works.

Brainwave

2011

Music poster
NR

The story of music and the music industry told through interviews with musicians, composers and producers across genres.

Music

2010

Good Morning, Mr. Orwell poster
8.1

In his book "1984", George Orwell saw the television of the future as a control instrument in the hands of Big Brother. Right at the start of the much-anticipated Orwellian year, Paik and Co. were keen to demonstrate satellite TV's ability to serve positive ends-- Namely, the intercontinental exchange of culture, combining both highbrow and entertainment elements. A live broadcast shared between WNET TV in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, linked up with broadcasters in Germany and South Korea, reached a worldwide audience of over 10 or even 25 million (including the later repeat transmissions).

Good Morning, Mr. Orwell

1984

Heavy Petting poster
5.7

Celebrities and creatives -- including musician David Byrne, performance artist Spalding Gray, comedian Sandra Bernhard, radical activist Abbie Hoffman, and poet Allen Ginsberg-- recall their earliest sexual experiences.

Heavy Petting

1989

Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film poster
8.2

Ric Burns unearths rarely seen footage and offers keen observations on the life and artistic influence of Andy Warhol. [Made for and aired on PBS's American Masters series.]

Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

2006

Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait poster
7.3

A chronicle of the personal life and public career of the celebrated artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel.

Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait

2017

Museum Town poster
NR

A rural American town suffering economically from factory closures finds an unconventional route to recovery with the help of MASS MoCA.

Museum Town

2019

Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson poster
8.2

A concert film directed by and featuring the music of Laurie Anderson, filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey, during the summer of 1985. The film includes songs from her 1984 album Mister Heartbreak and selections from her 1983 United States I–IV stage shows, along with eclectic, experimental visuals blending film, animation, dance and electronics.

Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson

1986

Talk Normal poster
NR

At the '87 Tokyo International Video Biennale, held at Spiral Hall, performance artist Laurie Anderson gave the unforgettable lecture-demonstration, "Talk Normal". In "Talk Normal", Anderson discusses the many elements that distinguish her work, from the unique violins that serve as her alter egos, to her video clone, to her experiments with electronics and her personal homage to Oscar Schlemmer's Bauhaus dances. Through excerpts from the film Home of the Brave, the television program What You Mean We?, and the music videos for her songs O Superman and Sharkey's Day, Anderson draws you into an eclectic world where sight and sound are united. In "Talk Normal", New York's best known performance artist talks about herself.

Talk Normal

1989

Laurie Anderson: The Collected Videos poster
9.0

Featuring The Videos : Beautiful Red Dress / Language Is A Virus / Sharkey's Day / O Superman - Including Excerpts From : What You Mean We / Alive From Off Center / The Eleventh Hour - Plus Never Before Seen Live Footage - Interview Footage - And More...

Laurie Anderson: The Collected Videos

1991

Symphony Of The Invisible poster
NR

"Symphony of the Invisible" is a reflection on creation and how through art, poetry and images you can break the limits that have been imposed on language and life itself.

Symphony Of The Invisible

2020

John Peel's Record Box poster
8.0

John Peel's Record Box is a documentary film made by Elaine Shepherd, released on 14 November 2005 on Channel 4. It was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award. It is about a small private collection of the British radio DJ John Peel who died in 2004 at the age of 65. Peel's main archive contained more than 100,000 vinyl records and CDs. This smaller private collection, however, contains 143 singles - some of them doublettes - stored in a private wooden box representing some of his personal favourites. According to the documentary, there are no singles by Peel's favorite group, The Fall, because he kept them in a separate box. The film features interviews with John's wife Sheila Ravenscroft, radio DJs and artists like Mary Anne Hobbs, Sir Elton John, Ronnie Wood, Roger Daltrey, Fergal Sharkey, Jack White, Michael Palin and Miki Berenyi.

John Peel's Record Box

2005

Behind the camera

No artwork available
NR

Laurie Anderson presents Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds. The Road is the fourth in a series of six lectures, looking at the challenges we face as artists and citizens as we reinvent our culture with ambiguity and beauty. The talk will consider technology, media hypnosis, radio, speed and invention.

Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds - The Road

2021

Heart of a Dog poster
6.5

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

Heart of a Dog

2015

Heart of a Dog poster
6.5

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

Heart of a Dog

2015

Heart of a Dog poster
6.5

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

Heart of a Dog

2015

Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson poster
8.2

A concert film directed by and featuring the music of Laurie Anderson, filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey, during the summer of 1985. The film includes songs from her 1984 album Mister Heartbreak and selections from her 1983 United States I–IV stage shows, along with eclectic, experimental visuals blending film, animation, dance and electronics.

Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson

1986

Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson poster
8.2

A concert film directed by and featuring the music of Laurie Anderson, filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey, during the summer of 1985. The film includes songs from her 1984 album Mister Heartbreak and selections from her 1983 United States I–IV stage shows, along with eclectic, experimental visuals blending film, animation, dance and electronics.

Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson

1986

Talk Normal poster
NR

At the '87 Tokyo International Video Biennale, held at Spiral Hall, performance artist Laurie Anderson gave the unforgettable lecture-demonstration, "Talk Normal". In "Talk Normal", Anderson discusses the many elements that distinguish her work, from the unique violins that serve as her alter egos, to her video clone, to her experiments with electronics and her personal homage to Oscar Schlemmer's Bauhaus dances. Through excerpts from the film Home of the Brave, the television program What You Mean We?, and the music videos for her songs O Superman and Sharkey's Day, Anderson draws you into an eclectic world where sight and sound are united. In "Talk Normal", New York's best known performance artist talks about herself.

Talk Normal

1989

Talk Normal poster
NR

At the '87 Tokyo International Video Biennale, held at Spiral Hall, performance artist Laurie Anderson gave the unforgettable lecture-demonstration, "Talk Normal". In "Talk Normal", Anderson discusses the many elements that distinguish her work, from the unique violins that serve as her alter egos, to her video clone, to her experiments with electronics and her personal homage to Oscar Schlemmer's Bauhaus dances. Through excerpts from the film Home of the Brave, the television program What You Mean We?, and the music videos for her songs O Superman and Sharkey's Day, Anderson draws you into an eclectic world where sight and sound are united. In "Talk Normal", New York's best known performance artist talks about herself.

Talk Normal

1989

No artwork available
NR

Aloft is an interactive VR work created through a collaboration between Huang Hsin-Chien and US artist Laurie Anderson from 2016 to 2017. Audiences will be placed in a VR scene that is 16,000 meters mid-air and embark on a fantastical journey amid a gradually disintegrating plane fuselage, which symbolizes industrial civilization. The audience’s perspective is suspended mid-air, with debris representing memories and symbols floating past. The narrative is activated when audiences attempt to touch the debris with their hands. The black box flight recorder, letter paper scribbled with blurry handwriting, and a rusty old phone sending ambiguous signals, all represent human history and memory and are rearranged according to the touch of curious audiences.

aloft

2017

Laurie Anderson: The Collected Videos poster
9.0

Featuring The Videos : Beautiful Red Dress / Language Is A Virus / Sharkey's Day / O Superman - Including Excerpts From : What You Mean We / Alive From Off Center / The Eleventh Hour - Plus Never Before Seen Live Footage - Interview Footage - And More...

Laurie Anderson: The Collected Videos

1991

Laurie Anderson: The Collected Videos poster
9.0

Featuring The Videos : Beautiful Red Dress / Language Is A Virus / Sharkey's Day / O Superman - Including Excerpts From : What You Mean We / Alive From Off Center / The Eleventh Hour - Plus Never Before Seen Live Footage - Interview Footage - And More...

Laurie Anderson: The Collected Videos

1991

No artwork available
NR

La Camera Insabbiata is a virtual reality work by the legendary artist Laurie Anderson, and Taiwanese new media artist Hsin-chien Huang. The work recently won the Best VR Experience Award at the 74th Venice Film Festival and the two artists have been approached by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for a new VR production . La Camera Insabbiata consists of eight unique rooms, where the viewers enter a virtual world made of blackboards symbolizing “memory,” and freely fly around to explore words, drawings, symbols, sounds, and memories.

La Camera Insabbiata

2017

To the Moon poster
NR

To the Moon uses images and tropes from Greek mythology, literature, science, sci-fi space movies and politics to create an imaginary and dark new moon.

To the Moon

2018

No artwork available
NR

Anderson’s Carmen, who works in a tobacco factory, is as strong-willed and carefree as the original (she steals cigarettes off the assembly line). The one significant difference in that she is married. The young soldier from Georges Bizet’s original opera (1875) has been transformed into her indifferent husband who sits home idly watching television with the kids while she works.

Carmen

1991

No artwork available
7.0

WHAT YOU MEAN WE is a surreal short film by experimental artist Laurie Anderson.

What You Mean We?

1986

No artwork available
7.0

WHAT YOU MEAN WE is a surreal short film by experimental artist Laurie Anderson.

What You Mean We?

1986

No artwork available
NR

Laurie Anderson presents Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds. Rocks is the third in a series of six lectures, looking at the challenges we face as artists and citizens as we reinvent our culture with ambiguity and beauty. The talk will consider language, lyrics and the narrator.

Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds - Rocks

2021

No artwork available
NR

Laurie Anderson presents Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds. The Forest is the second in a series of six lectures, looking at the challenges we face as artists and citizens as we reinvent our culture with ambiguity and beauty. This talk will consider place­ – visual and spatial sound.

Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds - The Forest

2021

No artwork available
NR

Laurie Anderson presents Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds. The City is the fifth in a series of six lectures, looking at the challenges we face as artists and citizens as we reinvent our culture with ambiguity and beauty. This talk will consider teachers, activism and politics.

Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds - The City

2021

No artwork available
NR

Laurie Anderson presents, Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds. The River is the first in a series of six lectures, looking at the challenges we face as artists and citizens as we reinvent our culture with ambiguity and beauty. The talk will consider spending time in the slowdown – time in music and stories.

Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds - The River

2021

Songs for Lines/Songs for Waves poster
NR

This performance consists of ten songs in which music, language and images are equally important. In most of these songs, Anderson plays the violin, accompanied by her own singing and an audiotape (with spoken text, more singing or more violin music). Her songs are often combined with a film projection: she is framed by the light from the projection, and is playing with the shadows cast by her body and her violin. Anderson makes experimental music, and she often find solutions in technological inventions, as with the song 'a man, a woman, a house and a tree'. The music for this piece is created with the help of a ‘slow-scan’ machine, which registers visual information and transforms this into sound. These experiments are not only about music, but also abou language: anagrams, play on words and poetic stories. The introductory anecdotes that Anderson tells are just as important as the song itself.

Songs for Lines/Songs for Waves

1977

Songs for Lines/Songs for Waves poster
NR

This performance consists of ten songs in which music, language and images are equally important. In most of these songs, Anderson plays the violin, accompanied by her own singing and an audiotape (with spoken text, more singing or more violin music). Her songs are often combined with a film projection: she is framed by the light from the projection, and is playing with the shadows cast by her body and her violin. Anderson makes experimental music, and she often find solutions in technological inventions, as with the song 'a man, a woman, a house and a tree'. The music for this piece is created with the help of a ‘slow-scan’ machine, which registers visual information and transforms this into sound. These experiments are not only about music, but also abou language: anagrams, play on words and poetic stories. The introductory anecdotes that Anderson tells are just as important as the song itself.

Songs for Lines/Songs for Waves

1977