FRANCESCA WOODMAN, UNTITLED PORTRAIT OF FRANCESCA WOODMAN AND HER FATHER, 1980. COURTESY BETTY AND GEORGE WOODMAN.

Francesca Woodman's 1981 suicide at the age of 22 conferred on the artist and her haunting black-and-white self-portraits a cult status that resonates today. The tragedy introduced the work to a popular audience, but colors comprehensive analysis. It's also prompted an abundance of filmmakers to approach Woodman's parents, the accomplished artists who manage the estate, with proposals for a documentary. All of them were denied, until television news producer C. Scott Willis made what he calls a "terrible social gaffe" at a 2004 brunch in Manhattan.