pentimento | pen-tuh-men-toh
noun (plural pentimenti | pen-tuh-men-tee)

the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over.

origin: early 20th century: from Italian, literally ‘repentance’.

Pentimenti is a film production company and nonprofit arts organization in the city of Chicago with a mission to produce and distribute high-quality educational documentaries on the visual arts. The inaugural project of Pentimenti Productions is the documentary Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists, the first feature film presentation of the work and history of the group of artists who have come to be known as the Chicago Imagists. Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists was in production from 2008-2014, with the support of a major grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. It was released in May 2014 and has since shown in theaters and museums worldwide. Pentimenti’s current project is a 3D feature-length documentary about the sculptor and printmaker H.C. Westermann, which was released in the fall of 2023, and is now playing at theaters, museums, and universities around the world. In addition to ideating and producing its own films in-house, Pentimenti has digitally restored archival work by other filmmakers, and regularly hosts free public screenings and community filmmaking workshops throughout Chicago.