In Pat Steir: Artist, the 82-year-old American painter talks while friend and filmmaker Veronica Gonzalez Peña navigates the complex stream of consciousness. Though the film contains some biographical moments—Steir’s childhood, for example—it focuses on the ins and outs of the artist’s intricate thought process. Steir’s paintings are deeply conceptual, and draw from Abstract Expressionist practices as well as Taoist philosophies. “I think everything is conceptual,” she explains, “because if a dog is sitting in the garden and decides to walk through a door, it has a concept: ‘I’ll walk through the door and be in the house.’” Other topics include Steir’s experience as a woman, her involvement in feminist causes, and her matter-of-fact, down-to-earth perception of fame. —E.C.