David Blaine
David Blaine travels around America to perform tricks in the UK premiere of his show What Is Magic? He visits New Orleans where he carries out a money trick in front of locals, producing hundreds of dollars at their fingertips before stopping off at New York to conduct magic in front of Orlando Bloom. But the jewel in David’s crown is his shot at the infamous The Bullet Catch; a trick which sees a 22 calibre bullet being fired at point blank range directly at the magician who then has to catch the bullet in a small metal cup in his mouth. The stunt is filmed using Phantom Camera technology which shoots 10,000 frames per second so that not a fraction of the action is missed.
In his most revealing performance yet, the one-hour special features an exploration into Blaine’s trademark style of street magic as he once again stuns his audience.
David Blaine’s signature brand of street magic mystifies the most recognisable celebrities in the world, such as Jamie Foxx, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Ricky Gervais, Katy Perry, Woody Allen, and Robert DeNiro, to name a few. He goes to the homes of Kanye West and Harrison Ford, Will Smith and Olivia Wilde. He pays a visit to Stephen Hawking at his office in Cambridge University. Blaine also travels the world, astonishing people from all walks of life with never-before seen, inconceivable magic.
The film follows the artist as she prepares for what may be the most important moment of her life: a major retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. To be given a retrospective at one of the world’s premiere museums is, for any living artist, the most exhilarating sort of milestone. For Marina, it is far more – it is the chance to finally silence the question she has been hearing over and over again for four decades: ‘But why is this art?’