Jim Finn is the writer/director of what have been called "Utopian comedies." His first feature film ''

Interkosmos Interkosmos (russian: Интеркосмос) was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with crewed and uncrewed space missions. The program was formed in April 1967 in Moscow. All members of the program from USSR ...

'' (71 minutes, 2006) is about an East German space colonization mission. His second feature ''La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo'' (60 minutes, 2007) is about a day in the life of a

Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the gro ...

women's prison cellblock. His third feature ''The Juche Idea'' (62 minutes, 2008) is about an artist residency in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

. He has been making short films and videos since 1999. His work is available through the

Video Data Bank Video Data Bank (VDB) is an international video art distribution organization and resource in the United States for videos by and about contemporary artists. Located in Chicago, Illinois, VDB was founded at the School of the Art Institute of Chic ...

and

Facets A facet is a flat surface of a geometric shape, e.g., of a cut gemstone. Facet may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Facets'' (album), an album by Jim Croce * ''Facets'', a 1980 album by jazz pianist Monty Alexander and his tri ...

DVD. He was born in 1968 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. He went to graduate school at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

and studied Creative Writing at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. He teaches video and writing at Emerson College. He started making movies in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in the late 1990s and became a fixture on the

microcinema The term "microcinema" can have two meanings. It can describe low-budget or amateur films shot mostly on digital video, edited on a computer, and then distributed via videotape, disc or over the Internet. Or it can describe a mode of low-budget exhi ...

scene. His short videos appeared at festivals like the

International Film Festival Rotterdam 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 ...

New York Underground Film Festival The New York Underground Film Festival was an annual event that occurred each March at Anthology Film Archives in New York City from 1994 through 2008 founded by filmmakers Todd Phillips ('' Road Trip'', '' Old School'') and Andrew Gurland. After P ...

Chicago Underground Film Festival Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF), founded in 1993, is the longest running underground film festival in the world. It's an internationally recognized program providing a venue for documentary, experimental and avant-garde narrative film and ...

Impakt Festival The Impakt Festival is a yearly manifestation on media art, founded in 1988 in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands. It showcases films, video art, performances, music, conferences and other special events with works from international artists. Deal ...

LA Freewaves LA Freewaves, also known as Freewaves, is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that advocates for, and exhibits, new, uncensored, independent media. It hosts an online media archive as a resource to facilitate the exchange of media art inte ...

and many others. His first feature,

premiered at the

in 2006 and was called a "retro gust of communist utopianism" in the Village Voice. His second feature made the Top 10 in Experimental Film at the Village Voice in 2007. His third feature, ''The Juche Idea'' has screened 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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and was produced as part of the Hallwalls Artist-in-Residence Project.

References

External links

*
Interkosmos official siteJim Finn official siteNew York Underground Film Festival trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Jim American film directors Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni Living people 1968 births Writers from St. Louis University of Arizona alumni Emerson College faculty German-language film directors Artists from Chicago