Thom Andersen (born 1943 in

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

) is an American filmmaker, film critic, and teacher best known for his works of

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

, including his 1975 film ''

Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer ''Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer'' is a 1975 student documentary film directed by Thom Andersen about the English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Legacy In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in ...

'' and the 2003 essay film ''

Los Angeles Plays Itself ''Los Angeles Plays Itself'' is a video essay by Thom Andersen, finished in 2003, exploring the way Los Angeles has been presented in movies. Consisting almost entirely of clips from other films with narration, the film was not initially released ...

''.

Biography

Andersen attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in the early 1960s and then returned to his hometown of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to attend

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

, where he studied with Arthur Knight and eventually assisted on Knight's project ''The History of Sex in Cinema''. While at USC, Andersen met long-time friend and collaborator

Morgan Fisher Stephen Morgan Fisher (born 1 January 1950) is an English keyboard player and composer, and is most known as a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. However, his career has covered a wide range of musical activities, and he is still ac ...

, who assisted on Andersen's student film ''Melting'', a portrait of a sundae. He regularly attended local screening series including shows by the Trak Film Group and Movies Round Midnight and famously wrote about an unpopular screening of Andy Warhol's ''

Sleep Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a de ...

''. After USC, Andersen attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and completed his experimental documentaries ''Olivia's Place ''and ''

.'' During the 1970s, his films screened at Los Angeles' Theatre Vanguard and Berkeley's

Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

. He was the programmer for LA Filmforum in Los Angeles during the late 1990s. Andersen's film ''

'' won the

National Film Board The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

Award for Best Documentary at the 2003

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...

, was voted best documentary of 2004 by the ''Village Voice'' critic's poll, and was voted one of the "Top Ten Films of the Decade" by critics at ''Cinema Scope''. In 2010 he completed ''Get Out of the Car,'' a portrait of signs and abandoned spaces set to Los Angeles music. In spring 2012, Andersen took part in the three-month

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

Career

He has taught at the SUNY Buffalo and

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and currently teaches film theory and history at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

. He lives in a two-bedroom

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

house designed by the architect Rudolf Schindler.

Preservation

The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

has preserved a number of Thom Andersen's films, including ''Olivia's Place'', ''Melting'', and ''--- -------'' (aka ''The Rock n Roll Movie).

Filmography

*''Melting'' (1965) *''Olivia's Place'' (1966/74) *''--- -------'' (1966–67) (aka ''The Rock n Roll Movie'') *''

'' (1975) (

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...

inductee) *''

Klassenverhältnisse ', known in English as ''Class Relations'', in French as ', is a 1984 film by the French filmmaking duo of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. It is based on Franz Kafka's unfinished first novel, '' Amerika''. The German filmmaker Harun Faro ...

'' directed by Straub-Huillet (1984) (actor) *''Red Hollywood'' (1996) *''

'' (2003) *''Get Out of the Car'' (2010) *''Reconversion'' (2012) *''The Thoughts That Once We Had'' (2015)Thom Andersen: 'I became a little monster', Film, The Guardian
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References

External links