''Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees'' is the first independent feature film by American filmmaker and artist David Blair. It was also the first film on the Internet.

Synopsis

Blair performs in the film, which additionally features a cameo by

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultu ...

. As an anti-war statement, ''Wax'' provided an early critique of the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

and current-day drone warfare. A combination of innovative digital animation, found footage, and live action, ''Wax''’s visual form is a unique representation of the technologies and politics that it critiques, which still reverberate today.

Production

''Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees'' and '' Waxweb'' have been supported by substantial grants, co-production, and international sales. Grants for this project include three awards from the

New York State Council for the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996), ...

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 ...

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

Jerome Foundation James Jerome Hill II (March 2, 1905 – November 21, 1972) was an American filmmaker and artist known for his award-winning documentary and experimental films. Career Hill was the child of railroad executive Louis W. Hill. He was educated at Ya ...

, and Checkerboard Foundation.

Reception

Released in 1991, ''Wax'' was a cult hit, playing cinemas in 26 U.S. cities and had additional theatrical play in Japan and Australia. ''Wax'' was a co-production with ZDF, German Television, and opened theatrically to rave reviews at the Public Theater in New York. ''Wax'' was included in a number of 10 Best Film lists that year.

Legacy

As the first film streamed across the Internet in 1993, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' declaring ''Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees'' an “historic event.” That same year, the hypermedia version of the film, '' Waxweb'', was one of the first sites on the World Wide Web, and thus has been repeatedly cited as a milestone of

Internet Art upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden Internet art (also known as net art) is a form of new media art distributed via the Internet. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance of the phys ...

. ''Waxweb'' has been presented in museums worldwide. ''Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees'' was an early example of

digital cinema Digital cinema refers to adoption of digital technology within the film industry to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to b ...

, was one of the first independent films to be edited on a digital

non-linear system In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...

, the Montage Picture Processor, and transferred from video to film for theatrical presentation.

References

External links