Bill Brand (born 1949, in
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
) is an
experimental film
Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...
and video artist, educator, activist and
film preservation
Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the wi ...
ist.
Life and career
Brand's films and videos were first shown at
Anthology Film Archives
Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema.[Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...]
,
New Directors/New Films Festival
The New Directors/New Films Festival is an annual film festival held in New York City, and organized jointly by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society o ...
,
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
and
Rotterdam Film Festival
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...
.
Masstransiscope
In 1980 Brand completed a permanent public art project, ''Masstransiscope'', a mural installed in the
subway tunnel of New York City that is animated by the movement of passing trains. ''Masstransiscope'' was awarded a certificate of merit by the
New York City Municipal Art Society in 1982. In disrepair for over 20 years, Masstransiscope was restored in 2008 and brought into the permanent collection of the MTA Arts for Transit program. The piece was named among the top 40 public art works in America for 2009 by the Public Art Network.
[Masstransiscope in "The New York Times"]
/ref>
Masstransiscope was again covered by graffiti during the complete subway shutdown during Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
and again restored after that.
Academic and commercial service
Brand lives in New York City and is professor of film and photography at Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...
in Amherst, . He also teaches film preservation at ''Moving Image Archiving and Preservation'' graduate program at Tisch School of the Arts
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University.
Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
. Since 1976, he has operated ''BB Optics'', an optical printing service specializing in 8 mm blow-ups and archival preservation for independent filmmakers, libraries, museums and archives. In 2006, he was named an Anthology Film Archives
Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema.[Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...]
, Paul Arthur, J. Hoberman, B. Ruby Rich
B. Ruby Rich is an American scholar; critic of independent, Latin American, documentary, feminist, and queer films; and a professor emerita of Film & Digital Media and Social Documentation at UC Santa Cruz. Among her many contributions, she is ...
, Noël Carroll
Noël Carroll (born 1947) is an American philosopher considered to be one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy of art. Although Carroll is best known for his work in the philosophy of film (he is a proponent of cognitive film theory) ...
, Brian Frye and Randy Kennedy["Attention Passengers! To Your Right, This Trip Is About to Become Trippy," The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2009] among others.
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Paula Rabinowitz. ''They Must Be Represented'' (1996)
* Erik Barnouw. ''Documentary, A History of the Non-Fiction Film'', Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 333.
* David James. ''Allegories of Cinema'', 1989.
* Robin Blaetz. ''Avant-Garde Cinema of the Seventies'' in ''Lost Illusions, American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam 1970–1979'' by David Cook, Volume 9, University of California Press, 2002, p. 469.
External links
Bill Brand's website
*
Masstransiscope blog
* ttp://www.nyu.edu/tisch/preservation/research/bboptics/ Bill Brand at the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program
Book ''Results You Can't Refuse: Celebrating 30 Years of BB Optics''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brand, Bill
1949 births
Artists from Rochester, New York
American video artists
Living people
Tisch School of the Arts faculty
Articles containing video clips