Matt Wolf (born May 11, 1982) is an American filmmaker,

documentarian A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in ter ...

, and producer. His notable films include '' Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell'', ''

Teenage Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the ...

'', ''Bayard & Me,'' '' Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project'', and '' Spaceship Earth''. In 2010, he was awarded a

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. His subjects include youth culture, artists, archives, music, and queer history."Dreaming Documentary: Matt Wolf""
''Mousse Magazine'', October–November 2013

Life

Wolf was born in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. He attended

film school A film school is an educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

in New York City, where he continues to be based.

Work

Wolf's films have played widely in festivals and have been distributed internationally in theaters and on television. His first feature documentary, '' Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell'', is about the avant-garde cellist and disco producer Arthur Russell. His second feature, ''

'', is about the birth of youth culture, based on a book by the British punk author

Jon Savage Jon Savage (born Jonathan Malcolm Sage; 2 September 1953 in Paddington, London) is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, ''England's Dreaming'', published in 1991. ...

. In 2019 his documentary about

Marion Stokes Marion Marguerite Stokes ( Butler; November 25, 1929December 14, 2012) was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, access television producer, civil rights demonstrator, activist, librarian, and prolific archivist, especially known for her compulsive ho ...

titled '' Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project'', premiered at the 2019

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

. The film was released by

Zeitgeist Films Zeitgeist Films is a New York-based distribution company founded in 1988 which acquires and distributes films from the U.S. and around the world. In 2017, Zeitgeist entered into a multi-year strategic alliance with film distributor Kino Lorber. ...

in association with

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...

and is to air on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

Independent Lens. His two-hour documentary on

Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2 is an American Earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the univers ...

titled '' Spaceship Earth'' premiered at the 2020

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 46,6 ...

and was released by

Neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypt ...

in May 2020. Wolf also directs and produces for television, including 2015's

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

Documentary ''It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise'', which premiered at Sundance and was executive produced by

Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series '' Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations ...

and

Jenni Konner Jennifer A. Konner (born May 15, 1971) is an American television writer, producer and director. She is best known as co-showrunner and writer with Lena Dunham of the HBO series '' Girls.'' In 2016, she directed the season finale of the fifth sea ...

.It's Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise (2015) - IMDb
/ref>

Filmography

Feature films

* '' Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell'' (2008) * ''

'' (2014) * '' Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project'' (2019) * '' Spaceship Earth'' (2020)

Short films

* ''I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard'' (documentary short, 2012) * ''The Face of AIDS'' (documentary short, 2016) * ''The Town I Live In'' (documentary short, 2017) * ''Bayard & Me'' (documentary short, 2017)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Matt 1982 births American documentary filmmakers Living people Mass media people from San Jose, California Film directors from California