New York, NY
Born 1965, Chicago, Illinois
I am a filmmaker who came out of painting, and I brought a lot of the same principles to my craft. Like painting, I think of film as the communication of a direct subjective experience. I am not interested in showing people having those experiences. I strive to create an atmosphere where the emotion a viewer may feel is unmediated by empathy with a character onscreen.
Unlike most filmmakers, I work alone on films that don't have much dialogue or voiceover, and which oftentimes rely solely on archival footage for content. I tend to choose topics that will lend themselves to my process - where images from the past comment on the present viewing experience. My research process involves making laundry lists of possible subject matters, going to libraries and ordering masters of scenes that speak to me. Oftentimes, I will find a scene that has nothing to do with what I am working on, but I will order it to store in my archive for later use.
I have enjoyed a long collaborative relationship with Ridge Theater. Through the company, I have come to work closely with a number of composers from whom I have drawn a lot of inspiration. The marriage of image with music is a huge part of my editorial process. I will start with an assemblage of the story I have spun in my head, using the images I have shot or found, and then conform that edit to a musical piece.
In addition to my ongoing involvement with future Ridge projects, I am trying to navigate the terrain of making a film which addresses this paradox - where a central character is both the thing that brings you into the story, but also keeps you from experiencing the picture as anything but a story. I am researching brain disorders and collecting footage. One day I hope to make something which straddles subject and object, shot and found, truth and fiction.
1989 B.F.A., Copper Union School of Art
2004 Light Is Calling, 8 minutes, color, 35mm 23rd Sundance Film Festival, 33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, Jurors' Choice - Black Maria Film Festival 2004, Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival 2003. Acquired by the Museum of Modern Art.
2003 The Mesmerist, 16 minutes, color, 35mm Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival 2003, New York Guitar Festival 2004, Acquired by the Museum of Modern Art.
2002 Decasia, 67 minutes, B/W, 35mm 21st Sundance Film Festival, 31st International Film Festival Rotterdam, 45th San Francisco International Film Festival; Golden Gate Awards: Certificate of Merit. Other Festival Screenings: Seoul, Barcelona, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Edinburgh. Acquired by Museum of Modern Art; Nederlands Filmmuseum, Library of Congress.
1996 The Film of Her, 12 min, B/W, 35mm First Place, Experimental - USA Film Festival 1997, Gold Award, Experimental - Houston Worldfest 1997, Best Experimental Film - Sinking Creek Film Festival 1997, Gold Award, Experimental - New York Expo of Short Film and Video 1997, Jurors' Choice - Black Maria Film Festival 1998, Silver Conch, Short Fiction - Mumbai International Film Festival 1998, India, Best Documentary- Mediawave 1998, Hungary. Acquired by Museum of Modern Art; Nederlands Filmmuseum, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Anthology Film Archives.
1993 The Death Train, 17 minutes, B/W, 16mm Dance Theater Workshop Bessie Award 1993 - for Excellence In Visual Design, Best Film - Viper Festival 1994, Lucerne, Switzerland. Permanent Collection, Museum of Modern Art. Exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in "The American Century, 1950-2000."
2003 NYSCA, Individual Artist Grant
2003 Dance Theater Workshop "Bessie" Award
2001 Creative Capital Grant
2001 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
2001 Village Voice "Obie" Award
2000 MacDowell Colony Residency
2000 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
2003 Tate Modern, London
2003 Maya Stendhal Gallery, New York
2002, 1995 Museum Of Modern Art, New York
1998 Anthology Film Archives, New York Institute of Contemporary Art, London
