Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) is remembered for his visionary contributions to postwar art as a painter, sculptor, performance artist, and social activist, recognizable by his trademark fedora. Associated with the Fluxus movement of the 1960s, his idiosyncratic work continues to exert a deep influence on today’s international avant-garde. This new documentary by Andres Veiel makes use of archival imagery that shows Beuys in his studio, as a teacher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and as a performer at happenings. It traces the impact of the war years on Beuys’s development as an artist, chronicling his art and his ideas about media, community, and capitalism in an intimate way.