David Anthony "Tony" Silver (April 15, 1935 – February 1, 2008) was an American documentary filmmaker known for directing the film ''

Style Wars ''Style Wars'' is an American 1983 documentary film on hip hop culture, directed by Tony Silver and produced in collaboration with Henry Chalfant. The film has an emphasis on graffiti, although bboying and rapping are covered to a lesser extent. T ...

''.

Biography

Silver born David Anthony Silver in Manhattan on April 15, 1935. He attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

as a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

scholar. He was a maker of trailers and other promotional materials for movies and television, including a trailer for

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...

's ''Platoon'', which won a Clio Award in 1986. He directed the 1983 documentary ''Style Wars'', one of the earliest accounts of hip-hop culture that documented the lives of subway graffiti artists in New York City during the early 1980s. The movie won the Grand Jury Prize at the United States Film and Video Festival, a precursor to the

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 ...

. Silver also made the documentary ''Marshall Arisman: Facing the Audience,'' about the artist

Marshall Arisman Marshall Arisman (October 14, 1938 – April 22, 2022) was an American illustrator, painter, storyteller, and educator. Biography Arisman was born in Jamestown, New York, on October 14, 1938, where he grew up on a dairy farm. He studied adve ...

. Silver died at his home in

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' ...

on February 1, 2018. He married film producer and later acting chairman of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Joan Shigekawa Joan Shigekawa is an American film and television producer, cultural grantmaker, and arts administrator. After a distinguished career as a senior executive at the Rockefeller Foundation, she joined the Obama Administration in 2009 as senior deputy ...

. Their daughter is Mariko Silver, former president of

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

and CEO of the Henry Luce Foundation.

References

1935 births 2008 deaths American documentary filmmakers {{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Tony Columbia University alumni Clio Award winners American directors Filmmakers from New York (state)