James Fotopoulos Explained
James Fotopoulos (born 1976, Norridge, Illinois) is an independent filmmaker whose work is low-budget and rigorous, and consists of experimental narrative features, non-narrative shorts, and video installations.[1] He began creating his film projects as a teenager in 1993, and as of 2012, has made over 100 films and videos.[2]
Partial filmography
- Zero (1997)
- Drowning (2000)
- Migrating Forms (2000)
- Insect (2001)
- Christabel (2001)
- Consumed (in 5-parts) (2001)
- Back Against the Wall (2002)
- Families (2002)
- Hymn (2002)
- The River (2002)
- The Swan (2002)
- The Nest (2003)
- Conjunction (2003)
- Jerusalem (2003)
- Sublimation (2003)
- The Fountain (2003)
- The Hemispheres (2003)
- Esophagus (2004)
- The Ant Hill (2004)
- The Pearl (2004)
- 30.40 (2005)
- Shattered (2005)
- Spine Face (2005)
- The Mirror Mask (2005)
- The Hard-Boiled Egg (2006)
- Trinity (2006)
- Go Back and Watch It (2007)
- Knot 1 (2007)
- Knot 2 (2007)
- Knot 3 (2007)
- Knot 4 (2007)
- Knot 5 (2007)
- Knot 6 (2007)
- Knot 7 (2007)
- Knot 8 (2007)
- Sleep Weep (The Zookeeper) (2007)
- Tape 1 (2007)
- The Discovery (2007)
- The Sky Song (2007)
- Untitled (Thanks, Get in...) (2008)
- Surprise! (2009)
- Alice in Wonderland (2010)
- Thick Comb (2011)
- Chimera (2011)
- Dignity (2012)
- THERE (2014)
- The Given (2015)
- Two Girls (2018)
Recognition
Fotopoulos' work was featured in the 2004 Whitney Biennial[3] and he has collaborated with media artist Cory Arcangel.
The Film Journal praises Fotopoulos, writing he is "one of cinema's most unique voices, a filmmaker of uncompromising vision."[4]
Of Fotopoulos' film Migrating Forms, Amy Taubin of The Village Voice wrote that while it was not a pleasurable experience, the film stayed with her most vividly as a "kind of stripped-down Eraserhead", which offered "a formal purity and obsessive power that's all too rare these days".[5]
Awards and nominations
Personal
James Fotopoulos was raised in Norridge, Illinois. His father was a policeman and his mother a hairdresser. He displayed artistic aptitude as a child and devoted his attention to filmmaking at age 15. His 1997 film Zero, shot when he was 18 years old during his first year as a film student at Columbia College Chicago, was his first feature.[7] In 1998 James founded his production company Fantasma Inc.[8]
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Frye . Brian . James Fotopoulos: An Interview . Other Cinema . June 5, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130131040207/http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/otherzine3/foto2.html . January 31, 2013 .
- News: Filmmaker Magazine, Summer 2012. Donal Foreman. James Fotopoulos in Filmmaker Magazine Now Online. June 6, 2013. reprint in Fantasma. April 29, 2013.
- http://whitney.domanidev.com/exhibition/biennial.shtml Whitney website
- News: Curnutte. Rick. Unquiet Cinema - An Interview with James Fotopoulos. June 6, 2013. Film Journal, Issue 4.
- News: Taubin. Amy. Getting Over; Going Underground. June 6, 2013. The Village Voice. March 7, 2000.
- News: Everleth. Mike. James Fotopoulos’ Migrating Forms. June 5, 2013. Underground Film Journal. May 4, 2012.
- News: Halter. Ed. Horror, Violence, Sociopathic Loners: The Films of James Fotopoulos Play Downtown. June 6, 2013. New York Press. November 21, 2000.
- Web site: James Fotopoulos – Film. jamesfotopoulos.com. en-US. 2018-08-04.