Mary Jo Andres Buscemi (May 21, 1954 – January 6, 2019) was an American filmmaker, choreographer and artist.

Early life and career

Andres was born in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

, on May 21, 1954. She first became known on the kinetic downtown New York performance scene of the 1980s for her film/dance/light performances, shown at the

Performing Garage The Performing Garage is an Off-Off-Broadway theater in SoHo, New York City. Established in 1968, it is the permanent home of the experimental theater company originally named The Performance Group (under Richard Schechner) that morphed in 1980 in ...

La Mama Experimental Theater Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

P.S. 122 Performance Space New York, formerly known as Performance Space 122 or P.S. 122, is a non-profitable arts organization founded in 1980 in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in an abandoned public school building. ...

, St. Marks Danspace, and the Collective for Living Cinema. As a filmmaker, Andres drew acclaim and awards for the 1996 film ''Black Kites'' which aired on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

and played several film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, London and Human Rights Watch Film Festivals. Andres directed music and art videos, as well as her own film performance works. Andres was a dance consultant to the acclaimed

Wooster Group The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group (1967–1980) during the period from 1975 to 1980, an ...

. She was an artist-in-residence at leading universities, museums and art colonies, including

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, and The Rockefeller Study Center in

Bellagio, Italy Bellagio (; lmo, label= Comasco, Belàs ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Como in the Italian region of Lombardy. It is located on Lake Como, also known by its Latin-derived name ''Lario'', whose arms form an inverted Y. T ...

. Andres created a series of

cyanotype The cyanotype (from Ancient Greek κυάνεος - ''kuáneos'', “dark blue” + τύπος - ''túpos'', “mark, impression, type”) is a slow-reacting, economical photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet ...

photographs which can be seen on her website.

Personal life

She married actor

Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi ( ,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself, some may insist that his pronunciation of his own name is "wrong" because it does not match the original Italian pronunciation as well. It is not uncommon for people to pronou ...

in 1987; they had one son, Lucian, born in 1990.

Death

Andres died at her home in Brooklyn on January 6, 2019, at age 64, from

encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is a chronic clinical syndrome with an insidious onset that manifests as chronic undernourishment accompanied by sporadic, acute, or subacute gastrointestinal obstruction symptoms. Peritoneal dialysis is ...

,Se
this source
for information on this disease. a rare disease of the bowel. A private memorial service was held on January 8.

Filmography

* 1992: ''What Happened to Pete'' (directed by Steve Buscemi) (editor) * 1996: ''Black Kites'' (director, editor, special effects director) * 1998: ''Piece of Cake'' (music video for

Mimi Goese Mimi Goese (last name rhymes with ''hazy'') is an American professional musician. Career Goese was the vocalist for dream pop band Hugo Largo. Solo Under the mononym "Mimi", she released a solo album, ''Soak'', on the Luaka Bop label, with contri ...

) (director) * 1998: ''

The Impostors ''The Impostors'' is a 1998 American farce film, motion picture directed, written and produced by Stanley Tucci, starring Oliver Platt, Tucci, Alfred Molina, Tony Shalhoub, Steve Buscemi, and Billy Connolly. The film, in which Oliver Platt and S ...

'' (choreographer) * 2000: ''Lillian Kiesler: On The Head Of A Pin'' (director)

Notes

References

External links

* * 1954 births 2019 deaths American choreographers American filmmakers Artists from New York City {{dance-bio-stub Date of birth missing