Chet Pancake is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

filmmaker and musician. He is a co-founder of the Red Room Collective, the High Zero Foundation, the Charm City Kitty Club and the Transmodern Festival. He is currently an assistant professor in the Film and Media Arts Program at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

and director of the Black Oak House Gallery. His documentary film ''Black Diamonds'' (2006), an examination of

mountaintop removal mining Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), also known as mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining at the summit or summit ridge of a mountain. Coal seams are extracted from a mountain by removing the land, or overburden, above the seams. Thi ...

, has received a number of awards.

Personal

Pancake grew up in the areas of

Romney, West Virginia Romney is a town in and the county seat of Hampshire County, West Virginia, Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 1,722 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. History Established by consecutive acts of the V ...

and

Summersville, West Virginia Summersville is a city in Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 3,459 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Nicholas County. History Summersville was laid out in 1824. The city was named for Lewis Summers, a lo ...

, and moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1993. His sister is writer Ann Pancake, and his brother is actor

Sam Pancake Sam Pancake (born May 10, 1964) is an American actor, improviser, writer, and comedian. He began his career with small roles in TV and film, such as ''Wings'' in 1990 and '' Pizza Man'' in 1991. Early life Sam Pancake was raised in Romney, Wes ...

. The writer

Breece D'J Pancake Breece D'J Pancake (b. Breece Dexter Pancake, June 29, 1952 – April 8, 1979) was an American short story writer. He is said to be "one of the greatest authors you've never heard of" according to an article on his work in '' Study Breaks''. ...

was also a relative. When he moved to Baltimore in 1994, he found his calling to producing and filmmaking. By producing and film making, his work portrayed exclusive subject matters that gained the publics eyes." Pancake currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his partner.

Career

In Baltimore, Pancake co-founded the Red Room Collective and High Zero Foundation. He also became a self-trained improvising percussionist and began making films, which ranged from short, experimental meditations to feature-length narratives and documentaries. He was a founding member of the Charm City Kitty Club (GLBT Performance Series) and the Transmodern Festival (Live.Art.Action.) Pancake currently lives in Philadelphia, where he is an assistant professor in the Film and Media Arts Program at Temple University and the director of Black Oak House Gallery. Beginning around 2001, his primary project was a documentary about the

mountaintop removal Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), also known as mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining at the summit or summit ridge of a mountain. Coal seams are extracted from a mountain by removing the land, or overburden, above the seams. Thi ...

project of the coal in southern West Virginia and its resulting environmental and humanitarian consequences titled ''Black Diamonds''. ''Black Diamonds: Mountaintop Removal & The Fight for Coalfield Justice'' was released by Bull Frog Films for distribution in December 2006. Pancake received a master's degree in fine arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in May 2012. As recipient of the Edes Foundation Emerging Artist Fellowship, he began the film ''Genius Project'' as his Edes Year project. In it he documents five avant-garde artists who identify as queer women:

Eileen Myles Eileen Myles (born December 9, 1949) is a LAMBDA Literary Award-winning American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades. No ...

, Barbara Hammer, Jibz Cameron,

Camae Ayewa Camae Ayewa, better known by her stage name Moor Mother, is an American poet, musician, and activist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is one half of the collective Black Quantum Futurism, along with Rasheedah Phillips, and co-leads the group ...

and

Rasheedah Phillips Rasheedah Phillips is an American artist, author, community activist and lawyer based in Philadelphia. She is the creator of The Afrofuturist Affair and, together with Camae Ayewa, the Black Quantum Futurism multidisciplinary artist collective. ...

. In 2012, Pancake began working on ''Queer Genius,'' a documentary interviewing and following queer-identifying artists

, Barbara Hammer, Rasheedah Phillips,

, and Jibz Cameron. In addition to the Edes Foundation, ''Queer Genius'' has received support from the Leeway Foundation and Temple University. The film began screening at various festivals and events in 2019, including Women Make Waves International Film Festival in Taipei, Taiwan and the Toronto Queer Film Festival in 2020. Many of the screenings were moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ''Queer Genius'' has won awards including “Audience Prize Best Feature 2020” at QFest Houston and "Boundary Breaker Award" at the Buffalo International Film Festival 2020. In an interview given in 2019, Pancake talked about currently projects, including a short film set in West Virginia that addresses family dynamic and addiction. This will be an addition to the artwork series "Bloodland." He is also working on a larger video project that addresses the emotional and somatic resonances of ecological activism and factors surround fossil fuel extraction on the East Coast of the United States.

Film and videography

* 2006 release, '' Black Diamonds: Mountaintop Removal & The Fight for Coalfield Justice'', DV 72 minutes; screened at the Documentary Fortnight Series at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(MoMA) Feb 2008 * 2009, ''Jay Dreams'' * 2010, ''bitterbittertears'' * 2011, ''Optical Scores'' *2019, ''Queer Genius''

Awards

* 2002, Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award * 2006, Key to the City,

South Charleston, West Virginia South Charleston is a city in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. It is located to the west of Charleston. The population was 13,639 at the 2020 census. South Charleston was established in 1906, but not incorporated until 1917. The ...

* 2006, Paul Robeson Independent Media Award * 2007, Jack Spadaro Documentary Award * 2007, Silver Chris Award – Best in Science & Technology Division – Columbus International Film Festival * 2012, Edes Foundation Emerging Artist Fellowship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago * 2013, American Composers Forum, Subito grant for ''Axon Ladder'', Bhob Rainey, Catherine Pancake, Meg Foley * 2014, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage “No Idea Too Ridiculous” grant for ''Allele Wake'', Catherine Pancake, Bhob Rainey, Christina Zani

References

External links