Travis Wilkerson
{{short description|American film director}}
Travis Wilkerson is an American independent film director, screenwriter, producer and performance artist. Named the "political conscience of 21st century American independent cinema," by Sight & Sound magazine,{{Cite web |last=David |first=Soleil |date=2015-12-09 |title=Filmmaker Travis Wilkerson Featured in Sight & Sound Magazine |url=http://blog.calarts.edu/2015/12/09/filmmaker-travis-wilkerson-featured-in-sight-sound-magazine/ |access-date=2016-11-07 |website=24700: News from California Institute of the Arts}} Wilkerson is heavily influenced by the Third Cinema movement, and known for films that combine "maximalist aesthetics and radical politics." This is owed, in part, to his meeting Cuban filmmaker Santiago Álvarez. Following the meeting, Wilkerson made the feature documentary Accelerated Under-Development about it.{{Cite news |last=Bateman |first=Conor |date=2016-05-24 |title=Machine Gun or Typewriter? |url=http://fourthreefilm.com/2016/05/machine-gun-or-typewriter/ |access-date=2016-11-07 |newspaper=4:3}}
Films
Wilkerson's best known film, An Injury to One (2003),{{Citation|last=Wilkerson|first=Travis|title=An Injury to One|date=2003-01-17|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342570/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_6|accessdate=2016-10-31}} was called a "political-cinema landmark" in the Los Angeles Times.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-oct-30-la-ca-second-look-20111030-story.html|title=A Second Look: 'An Injury to One'|last=Lim|first=Dennis|date=2011-10-30|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2016-10-31}} The film is an experimental documentary exploring the turn-of-century lynching of union organizer Frank Little, an I.W.W. union leader combating injustice against the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in Butte, Montana.
In 2007, Wilkerson presented the first performance art at the Sundance Film Festival: Soapbox Agitation #1: Proving Ground. The expanded cinema performance was described as "a scabrous assault on American imperialism inspired by the theoretical writings of Brecht and Lenin that featured Travis Wilkerson speechifying in between rockabilly protest songs as interpreted by "death folk" Los Angeles band Los Duggans,"{{Cite news |last=Peranson |first=Mark |date=2009-09-04 |title=Spotlight {{!}} From Sundance to Berlin: More Films About Buildings and Fools - Cinema Scope |url=http://cinema-scope.com/spotlight/spotlight-from-sundance-to-berlin-more-films-about-buildings-and-fools/ |access-date=2016-11-13 |newspaper=Cinema Scope |language=en-US}} and "one of the only Sundance products that wasn't for sale."{{Cite news |last=Nelson |first=Rob |date=2007-01-23 |title=Dissent for Sale |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/film/dissent-for-sale-6418949 |access-date=2016-11-13 |newspaper=Village Voice}}
His narrative-documentary hybrid, Machine Gun or Typewriter? (2015), premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival.{{Cite news|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/locarno-film-festival-2015-recollection-machine-gun-or-typewriter-night-without-distance-and-more|title=Locarno Film Festival 2015: Recollection, Machine Gun or Typewriter?, Night Without Distance, & More {{!}} The House Next Door {{!}} Slant Magazine|newspaper=Slant Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2016-11-07}} As translated from Il Manifesto, it is a "digression on the possible dissolution of life and love in a tragicomically apocalyptic Los Angeles, a delirium that ranges between the analog and the digital by very cleverly bypassing the image itself."{{Cite web|url=http://ilmanifesto.info/se-lamore-diventa-un-gesto-di-resistenza/|title=il manifesto|website=ilmanifesto.info|date=8 December 2015 |access-date=2016-11-07}}
The documentary Distinguished Flying Cross (2011) screened at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival{{Cite web|url=http://www.yidff.jp/2011/ic/11ic05-e.html|title=YIDFF: 2011: International Competition|website=www.yidff.jp|access-date=2016-11-13}}
In January 2017, Wilkerson presented the premiere of a new "live" documentary in the New Frontier section of the Sundance Film Festival, Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?{{Cite news|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/sundance-film-festival-2017-vr-new-frontier-lineup-1201930819/|title=Sundance Film Festival Embraces Virtual Reality With 2017 New Frontier Program|last=Debruge|first=Peter|date=2016-12-01|newspaper=Variety|language=en-US|access-date=2016-12-07}} The Village Voice wrote, ""It's hard not to experience Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? and not get shivers up your spine - from fear, from anger, and from the beauty of Wilkerson's filmmaking."{{Cite news|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/film/sundance-haunted-by-mudbound-a-ghost-story-and-did-you-wonder-who-fired-the-gun-9604893|title=Sundance: Haunted by 'Mudbound,' 'A Ghost Story' and 'Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?'|last=Ebiri|first=Bilge|date=2017-01-25|newspaper=Village Voice|access-date=2017-01-26}} The same publication named it one of "The Ten Best Films at Sundance 2017."{{Cite news|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/film/the-10-best-films-at-sundance-2017-9624824|title=The 10 Best Films at Sundance 2017|last=Ebiri|first=Bilge|date=2017-01-31|newspaper=Village Voice|access-date=2017-01-31}} Writing in Artforum, Amy Taubin wrote: "this performance strategy had a powerful effect on both him and the audience. The power has to do with it being a personal story, told in the first-person; in sharing it with an audience, Wilkerson doesn’t let anyone, including himself, off the hook. 'This isn’t a white savior story. This is a white nightmare story….' one of the strongest works in a chilling Sundance Film Festival."{{Cite web|url=https://www.artforum.com/film/#entry66500|title=artforum.com / film|website=artforum.com|language=en-us|access-date=2017-02-13}}
Other work
In addition to his longer works, Wilkerson has produced the short films National Archive V.1 (2001) and Pluto Declaration (2011). The former was screened at both the Toronto International Film Festival and the Musée du Louvre,{{Cite web |title=Le remploi au cinéma {{!}} Musée du Louvre {{!}} Paris |url=http://www.louvre.fr/cycles/le-remploi-au-cinema |access-date=2016-11-13 |website=www.louvre.fr}} and the latter was included in the Sundance Film Festival{{Cite web |title=2012 Sundance Film Festival Announces Short Film Program |url=http://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/2012-festival-program-announcement-shorts |access-date=2016-11-13 |website=www.sundance.org}} before sharing the prize for "Funniest Film" at the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival.{{Cite news |title=50th Ann Arbor Film Festival Awards |url=http://expcinema.org/site/en/50th-ann-arbor-film-festival-awards |access-date=2016-11-13 |newspaper=Experimental Cinema}} He also contributed a segment to the omni-bus film Far From Afghanistan (2012).{{Cite news |title=Far From Afghanistan {{!}} Film Society of Lincoln Center |url=http://www.filmlinc.org/films/far-from-afghanistan/ |access-date=2016-11-13 |newspaper=Film Society of Lincoln Center |language=en-US}}
Wilkerson is the founding editor of the filmmaking journal Now!{{Cite web |last=Wrate |first=Jonny |date=2017-08-12 |title=Travis Wilkerson on the search for art in activism |url=https://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/travis-wilkerson-search-art-activism/ |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Kosovo 2.0}} In addition to his work as a practitioner, he also teaches filmmaking, practice, and criticism. He was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Film at Vassar College.{{Cite web|url=http://film.vassar.edu/bios/twilkerson.html|title=Travis A. Wilkerson - Film Department - Vassar College|website=film.vassar.edu|access-date=2016-11-07}} He has previously taught at Pomona College, CalArts, and University of Colorado, Boulder.{{Cite web|url=http://mediastudies.pomona.edu/people/travis-wilkerson/|title=Travis Wilkerson, Visiting Fellow in Media Praxis {{!}} Media Studies|website=mediastudies.pomona.edu|access-date=2016-11-07}}
Honors and awards
- Machine Gun or Typewriter? Best International Feature Dokufest (2015){{citation needed|date=June 2024}}
- Creative Capital award (2015){{Cite web|url=http://creative-capital.org/projects/view/818|title=Creative Capital - Investing in Artists who Shape the Future|website=creative-capital.org|access-date=2016-11-01}}
- Pluto Declaration 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival's Prix de Varti Funniest Film (2012){{Cite web|url=http://www.cinemadureel.org/en/the-festival/news/5318-distinguished-flying-cross-international-festival|title="Distinguished Flying Cross" - International Festival — Cinéma du Réel|website=www.cinemadureel.org|access-date=2016-11-07}}
- Distinguished Flying Cross Cinéma du réel's international Competition SCAM Prize (2011)
- Distinguished Flying Cross Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival's Special Prize in International Competition (2011)
Filmography
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year !Fim !Director !Producer !Writer |
| 1999
|Accelerated Under-development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2002
|An Injury to One |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2005
|Who Killed Cock Robin? |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2007
|Soapbox Agitation #1: Proving Ground |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2011
|Distinguished Flying Cross |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2012
|Far From Afghanistan |Yes | |Yes |
| 2013
|Los Angeles Red Squad |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2015
|Machine Gun or Typewriter? |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2017
|Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? |Yes |Yes |Yes |
| 2024
| Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- http://www.traviswilkersonfilms.com/
- {{IMDb name|1288933|Travis Wilkerson}}
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Category:American film producers
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)