Since 2013, a series of conferences, monographs, and edited collections have highlighted the importance of documentary across the spectrum of art practice and film representing a variety of perspectives, politics, and applications without any significant emphasis on its role in performance art. 1 Notably, documentaries about Marina Abramovi´ c, one of contemporary art’s best-known practitioners, have eluded sustained attention. In four documentaries, filmmakers have communicated the clarity of her artistic vision through observation of the artist at work. Documentary films about Abramovi´ c blur the lines between the products of mass media and performance art documentation. These films observe her diplomatic contacts cross-culturally, and document her groundbreaking performances, creative process, and audiences inside and outside the museum. From China to Brazil, the Guggenheim to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), documentary film has followed Abramovi´ c as her art practice intervenes in the most important discourses around performance art. As this body of work has developed, the genre of documentary film has entwined with Abramovi´ c’s performance, participating in her institutionalization. Beginning in 1989 with The Great Wall of China: Lovers at the Brink (Murray Grigor), Marina Abramovi´ c has been the subject of numerous documentaries. Grigor’s documentary captured her last collaborative performance with her partner of twelve years, Ulay. In the new millennium, Abramovi´ c has returned to the center of art discourse through her decades-long commitment to performance. Babette Mangolte’s Seven Easy Pieces (2007) closely observes the artist during a series of performances at the Guggenheim in New York over seven consecutive nights. Marina Abramovi´ c: The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers, 2012) brought together her past work and her triumphant performance at MoMA, during her first major retrospective exhibition. The year 2016 saw the debut of The Space In Between: Marina Abramovi´ c in Brazil (Marco del Fiol), which follows the artist during 6 FILM AND THE PERFORMANCE OF MARINA ABRAMOVI ´ C Documentary as documentation Chanda Laine Carey