Matthew Lessner is an artist and independent filmmaker.

Biography

Born in

Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...

, California, Lessner was raised in

Roseburg, Oregon Roseburg is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is in the Umpqua River, Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon and is the county seat and most populous city of Douglas County, Oregon, Douglas County. Founded in 1851, the population was 23,683 a ...

, where he attended

Roseburg High School Roseburg High School is a public high school in Roseburg, Oregon, United States. Campus The campus is roughly and contains seven main buildings as well as a track and an artificial turf football field. Completed in 1926, the "Heritage Buildin ...

. He graduated in 2005 from

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Scie ...

, where he studied film.

Short films

Lessner's directorial debut was the 2005 short film ''Darling Darling'' starring

Michael Cera Michael Austin Cera (; ; born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor and musician. He started his career as a child actor, voicing the character of Brother Bear on the children's television show ''The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series), The Berenstain ...

, which screened at over 30 film festivals worldwide including the

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (French: ''Festival international du court métrage de Clermont-Ferrand'') is an international film festival dedicated to short films held annually in Clermont-Ferrand, France. History I ...

, Comedia, and the

Ann Arbor Film Festival The Ann Arbor Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Ann Arbor in the U.S. state of Michigan. Established in 1963, it is the fourth-oldest film festival in North America (after the Yorkton Film Festival, 1947; Columbus International Film ...

where Lessner won the Tom Berman Most Promising Filmmaker Award. The film is included on the sixth issue of ''

Wholphin A wholphin (portmanteau of whale + dolphin) is an extremely rare cetacean hybrid born from a mating of a female common bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops truncatus'') with a male false killer whale (''Pseudorca crassidens''). The name implies a hy ...

'' DVD magazine with alternate audio versions by

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

and

Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and ''All the Wrong Questions ...

. ''Darling Darling'' was included the

's Retrospective 2014: the twenty-first century American short films. Lessner's second short film, ''By Modern Measure'', premiered at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

and screened at 30 film festivals including the 2008

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. In January 2011 the

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers f ...

released "By Modern Measure" on The YouTube Screening room as part of its Sundance Film Festival Classics series. His third short film, '' Chapel Perilous'' featuring

Sun Araw Cameron Stallones, better known as Sun Araw, is an American musician. Previously a member of the band Magic Lantern, he has released several albums of experimental music, including a collaboration with Jamaican reggae group The Congos. He has als ...

was an official selection at the 2014

http://filmguide.sundance.org/film/14045/chapel_perilous where it won the Short Film Audience Award. The film premiered internationally at the

Stockholm Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival ( sv, Stockholms filmfestival, italic=no) is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November. The w ...

. In March 2014 ''Chapel Perilous'' was selected as a

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

Staff Pick.

Feature films

In August 2008, Lessner began work on his first feature film ''The Woods'', which was filmed in the woods around Lookingglass, Oregon. The Woods was invited to world premiere at the 2011

. The film made history as the first film to premiere at the

that used

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

for production financing. ''The Woods'' premiered in New York at the BAMcinemaFest held at the

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

. ''The Woods'' premiered internationally at the

Cologne Conference The Film Festival Cologne (formerly: Cologne Conference) is an international Film and Television Festival that takes place annually in Cologne, Germany. With about 10.000 visitors, the Film Festival Cologne is considered as the best attended festi ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, Germany. In August 2011, Lessner was awarded a

San Francisco Film Society SFFILM, formerly known as The San Francisco Film Society, is a nonprofit arts organization located in San Francisco, California, that presents year-round programs and events in film exhibition, media education, and filmmaker services. The Execut ...

and Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for screenwriting in support of feature film tentatively titled ''Terror Tuesday''. In May 2012, Lessner was awarded an additional

and Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for development of the feature tentatively titled ''Terror Tuesday''. In 2017 Lessner released his second feature film Automatic at Sea, which became embroiled in the

Pizzagate conspiracy theory "Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police. In March 2016, the pe ...

prior to its release, resulting in Lessner receiving death threats and being accused of creating coded propaganda for the

Clinton Foundation The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...

called the film "unusual and courageous". Automatic at Sea screened at festivals and theaters worldwide including at the

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which als ...

, the ArcLight Hollywood, the

American Film Festival American Film Festival is a film festival held annually in October in Wrocław, Poland. The first festival was held from 20 to 24 October 2010. The festival is organized by Stowarzyszenie Nowe Horyzonty and co-funded by the Wroclaw Municipality a ...

, and the New Hampshire Film Festival where the film won the Narrative Grand Jury Prize.

Episodic

In March 2021 the pilot for Lessner's metaphysical comedy series The Position world premiered at the

Film Festival in the Episodic Pilot Competition.

Fine Art

In April 2016, Champis Solutions, a solo installation by Lessner opened at Nevven Gallery in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

, Sweden. Champis Solutions was Phase Two in the ongoing Seven Phase project titled in Anticipation of the Unexpected. In late 2018 Lessner was awarded a grant from the Swedish art council Kulturbryggan for the development of an interactive film exhibition entitled SAINT Y2K. In June 2020 years 3 and 4 of Lessner's ongoing interactive seven year film project In Anticipation of the Unexpected were exhibited at Nevven Gallery in

, Sweden. In the fall of 2020 Lessner's immersive, interactive experience SAINT Y2K opened as a solo exhibition in Stockholm, Sweden.

Music videos

Lessner has directed over a dozen music videos including for the

Dirty Projectors Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The b ...

' single "Stillness is the Move" which was ranked one of the best music videos of 2009 by Stereogum. He also directed the video

Fool's Gold The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...

's "Surprise Hotel".

Web

Lessner directed and produced several videos for

BBC Collective ''Collective'' was an "interactive culture magazine" hosted by the BBC's website bbc.co.uk and run using the "DNA" software developed for h2g2. It was launched in May 2002 and became interactive four months later. Among its editors were Rowan K ...

with bands including

Black Dice Black Dice is an American experimental noise music band based in Brooklyn, New York and consisting of brothers Bjorn and Eric Copeland along with Aaron Warren. Formed in 1997, the group was initially inspired by hardcore and noise rock, but subse ...

and

The Fiery Furnaces The Fiery Furnaces are an American indie rock band, formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York.. - ''In 2000 they moved Brooklyn... and began playing as the Fiery Furnaces late in the year''. - Allmusic The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor ...

. In 2011 Lessner created and directed the web series "Make a Friend" for the French website Konbini.

Music

Lessner contributed lyrics to 6 of the 8 tracks on

Lydia Ainsworth Lydia Miriam Ainsworth is a Canadian composer, producer and singer based in Toronto. She has released four albums, the Juno-nominated ''Right From Real'', ''Darling of the Afterglow'', ''Phantom Forest'', and ''Sparkles & Debris''. Early life an ...

's debut album Right From Real, including "Hologram" which was named Best New Track by

Pitchfork (website) ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

The Album was released on

Arbutus Records Arbutus Records is a Montreal based record label and Artist Management, management company founded by Sebastian Cowan in 2009. The label is named after the street by the same name in Vancouver, where Cowan grew up. The label have also begun expand ...

in 2014 and was a shortlist nominee for the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for the Electronic Album of the Year. Additionally he directed the music video for Ainsworth's single Malachite, which

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

voted video of the week in June 2014. Lessner has collaborated with Cameron Stallones of

who contributed a cover of

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

's 'Thrasher' to the soundtrack for The Woods. In 2009 they released ''Sun Araw featuring Matthew Lessner'' – ''In Orbit'' through Stunned Records. Lessner and his younger sister Sophia Lessner have collaborated on a musical project called ''Masons'' . They released their first tape ''In the Basement of the Temple'' through Stunned Records in 2008.

Other work

Lessner starred as an actor in the

Mia Hansen-Løve Mia Hansen-Løve (born 5 February 1981) is a French film director, screenwriter, and former actress. She has won several accolades for her work. Her first feature film, '' All Is Forgiven'', won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film in 2007 ...

film

Bergman Island ''Bergman Island'' is a 2021 romantic drama film written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. It stars Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth, Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielsen Lie. Krieps and Roth play a married couple of filmmakers spending a working retrea ...

which premiered at the 2021

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

. Lessner published an article in

Filmmaker (magazine) ''Filmmaker'' is a quarterly publication magazine covering issues relating to independent film. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. The magazine is now published by the IFP (Independent Film ...

recounting his experiences with online conspiracy theorists in the lead up to the release of his feature film Automatic at Sea. Lessner's photographs have been featured in multiple publications including

The Sun Magazine ''The Sun'' is a magazine based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The overall goal for the publication, as stated by editor and co-founder, Sy Safransky Sy is a given name, nickname/hypocorism (often of Seymour) and surname which may refer to: ...

and

The Wire (magazine) ''The Wire'' (or simply ''Wire'') is a British music magazine publishing out of London, which has been issued monthly in print since 1982. Its website launched in 1997, and an online archive of its entire back catalog became available to subs ...

. In the spring of 2008 Lessner worked as an intern for syndicated news program

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

Filmography

Music videos

Other

References

External links

Monte Lomax Productions
*
Collected Music Videos of Matthew Lessner

The Woods Teaser 1

The Woods Teaser 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lessner, Matthew 1983 births Living people American music video directors People from Roseburg, Oregon Chapman University alumni Film directors from Oregon