Chuck Smith is a New York-based documentary filmmaker, television producer and author. He created a 48-minute film ''Forrest Bess: Key to the Riddle'' in 1999 about the artist Forrest Bess. It featured

Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...

as the voice of Bess and was co-directed by

Ari Marcopoulos Ari Marcopoulos (born Aristos) is an American self-taught photographer, adventurer and film artist. Born in the Netherlands, he is best known for presenting work showcasing elusive subcultures, including artists, snowboarders and musicians. He liv ...

. His 2018 film ''Barbara Rubin & the Exploding NY Underground'' was a biographical documentary about the 1960s experimental filmmaker and scene-maker

Barbara Rubin Barbara Rubin (1945–1980) was an American filmmaker and performance artist. She is best known for her landmark 1963 underground film '' Christmas on Earth''. Life and career Barbara Rubin grew up in the Cambria Heights neighborhood of Queens ...

. The film won the 2018 Metropolis Competition at the

DOC NYC Doc NYC (stylized as DOC NYC) is an annual documentary film festival in New York City. Co-founded by Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, the festival is the country's largest documentary film festival with over 300 films and events and 250 specia ...

film festival. Smith's publications include a Forrest Bess book that was published by

powerHouse Books PowerHouse Books (stylized as powerHouse Books) is an independent publisher of art and photography books founded in 1995 by Daniel Power, in Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn, with its headquarters in Industry City, Brooklyn, Industry City. PowerHous ...

in 2013 with a Foreword by

Robert Thurman Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman (born August 3, 1941) is an American Buddhist author and academic who has written, edited, and translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He was the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at ...

, and ''Film Culture 80: The Legend of Barbara Rubin'' (2019) co-edited with

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas (; ; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas's work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals world ...

and published by Spector Books.

References

External links

* American documentary filmmakers Film directors from New York City Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-film-bio-stub