Bill Brand (born 1949, in Rochester,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

) is an

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that does not apply standard cinematic conventions, instead adopting Non-narrative film, non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many e ...

and video artist, educator, activist and

film preservation Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the wide ...

ist.

Life and career

Brand's films and videos were first shown at

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

in New York City in 1973. They have since been screened in the United States and around the world in museums, independent film showcases, colleges and universities, and on television. They have been featured at major film festivals including the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

New Directors/New Films Festival The New Directors/New Films Festival is an annual film festival held in New York City, organized jointly by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Established in 1972, the Festival generally selects films from first-t ...

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

and

Rotterdam Film Festival International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

Masstransiscope

In 1980 Brand completed a permanent public art project, ''Masstransiscope'', a mural installed in the subway tunnel of New York City that is animated by the movement of passing trains. ''Masstransiscope'' was awarded a certificate of merit by the New York City Municipal Art Society in 1982. In disrepair for over 20 years, Masstransiscope was restored in 2008 and brought into the permanent collection of the MTA Arts for Transit program. The piece was named among the top 40 public art works in America for 2009 by the Public Art Network.Masstransiscope in "The New York Times"
/ref> Masstransiscope was again covered by graffiti during the complete subway shutdown during

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

and again restored after that.

Academic and commercial service

Brand lives in New York City and is professor of film and photography at

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...

in Amherst,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. He also teaches film preservation at ''Moving Image Archiving and Preservation'' graduate program at

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

. Since 1976, he has operated ''BB Optics'', an optical printing service specializing in 8 mm blow-ups and archival preservation for independent filmmakers, libraries, museums and archives. In 2006, he was named an

film preservation honoree and given a month-long retrospective to celebrate BB Optics' 30th anniversary.

Reception

In film books

The work of Brand is discussed in histories of cinema including the books ''They Must Be Represented'' (1996) by Paula Rabinowitz, ''Documentary, A History of the Non-Fiction Film'', (1992) by Erik Barnouw, ''Allegories of Cinema'', (1990) by David James and in a chapter by Robin Blaetz titled ''Avant-Garde Cinema of the Seventies'' in ''Lost Illusions, American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam 1970–1979'' by David Cook.

In the press

Brand's work has also been written about in news and journal articles by

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

, Paul Arthur, J. Hoberman, B. Ruby Rich,

Noël Carroll Noel Carroll (born December 25, 1947, in Far Rockaway, New York City) is an American philosopher and a leading figure in the contemporary philosophy of art. In 2016 in ''Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog'', Carroll was ranked sixth in a list of ...

, Brian Frye and Randy Kennedy"Attention Passengers! To Your Right, This Trip Is About to Become Trippy," The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2009 among others.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Paula Rabinowitz. ''They Must Be Represented'' (1996) * Erik Barnouw. ''Documentary, A History of the Non-Fiction Film'', Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 333. * David James. ''Allegories of Cinema'', 1989. * Robin Blaetz. ''Avant-Garde Cinema of the Seventies'' in ''Lost Illusions, American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam 1970–1979'' by David Cook, Volume 9, University of California Press, 2002, p. 469. *

Alberte Pagán Alberte Pagán, born in O Carballiño in 1965, is a Galician filmmaker and writer. Film criticism Alberte Pagán is a recognized theorist and researcher.Villarmea 2016, p. 236. Writing in Galician, Spanish and English, he has published many ...

. ''Emotional Materials / Personal Processes. Six Interviews with Experimental Filmmakers'', 2022
Stereo Editions
.

External links

Bill Brand's website
*

Masstransiscope blog

* ttp://www.nyu.edu/tisch/preservation/research/bboptics/ Bill Brand at the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program
Book ''Results You Can't Refuse: Celebrating 30 Years of BB Optics''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brand, Bill 1949 births Artists from Rochester, New York American video artists Living people Tisch School of the Arts faculty Articles containing video clips