Matthew Akers (born November 19, 1975) is an American
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
, producer,
cinematographer
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
, and photographer. He is best known for the critically acclaimed documentary ''Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present'', (2012) for which he won a
Peabody and
Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
Award. He recently directed two primetime
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
television specials for
David Blaine, ''
Real or Magic'' (2013) and ''
Beyond Magic'' (2016), which featured Blaine performing magic for various celebrities and public figures.
Early life and education
Akers was born and raised in
Dallas, Texas. He studied fine art and sculpture at the
School of Visual Arts.
Career
Akers has shot and produced over a dozen documentary television series, including the 10-part series ''
Carrier
Carrier may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Carrier'' (album), a 2013 album by The Dodos
* ''Carrier'' (board game), a South Pacific World War II board game
* ''Carrier'' (TV series), a ten-part documentary miniseries that aired on PBS in April 20 ...
'' (2008) during which he lived on an aircraft carrier in the
Persian Gulf for six months, and ''Circus,'' (2010) in which he spent a year on the road traveling with the
Big Apple Circus.
In 2010 he was approached by his friend and producer, Jeff Dupre, to make a film about the performance artist
Marina Abramović. He was skeptical at first, but Abramovic gave him the keys to her apartment and full access to document her life in the months leading up to her performance at
The Museum of Modern Art. 'The show became an art world and pop culture phenomenon, as hundreds of people lined up for hours for a chance to sit with Abramović – the 'grandmother of
performance art.'
The film itself is a "mesmerizing cinematic journey inside the world of a radical performance artist who draws no distinction between life and art."
The New Yorker called the film an "epic in its own right," alluding to the fact that Akers logged some 1400 hours of footage, before editing it down to 105 minutes. The film offers an inside look at the exhaustive process involved in successfully producing an artistic performance of such a grand scale, and attempts to bring Marina's art to the masses.
Filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akers, Matthew
1975 births
American cinematographers
American directors
Writers from Dallas
Film producers from Texas
Living people