but above it all, I’m interested in the mobilization and manipulation and manic play with old and new meanings, as ’found’ footage is re-contextualized with newly-produced sound and imagery, documentary testimony, and collateral text. Yes. This polymorphous collage-essay form I suppose represents an effort to create an audio-visual language -- or at least phraseology --that has the same abstract, metaphoric and punning qualities as spoken language; clusters of signifiers in provisional constructs cobbled together. The flotsam and jetsam of film culture can serve to stage a review of the carnival acts of history.”
Craig Baldwin is an independent filmmaker, programmer and media archaeologist. Pirating footage from both the mass media and "found" marginalia, Baldwin subverts conventional documentary form with satiric commentary and wildly energized montage. Whether he is parodying the sordid history of U.S. imperialism through the cinematic language of science fiction, or playing with issues of intellectual property by ’jamming’ the corporate owners of copyright, his unique crossing of experimental audio-visual strategies with trenchant cultural critique yields a hilariously provocative body of work.
Links: XFactor, Flicker, A.T.A.
Born 1952, Oakland, California
Lives in San Francisco
1978 B.A. San Francisco State University, Department of Cinema
1986 M.A. San Francisco State University, Department of Cinema
1997 Spectres of the Spectrum
1995 Sonic Outlaws
1992 ¡O No Coronado!
1991 Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America
1986 RocketKitKongoKit
1978 Wild Gunman
1994 American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Grant
1994 San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant
1992 Western States Media Arts Fellowship
1991, 89 Film Arts Foundation Personal Works Grant
San Francisco International Film Festival; Berlin Film Festival; Rotterdam Film Festival; Havana Film Festival; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Flaherty Film Seminar; MOMA, NYC; ICA, London; Pompidou Center, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona; Southern Circuit Tour; Central New York Film Tour; Desmontaje Tour, Spain; Stadtkino, Vienna; AFI, Washington, D.C.; Museum Moving Image, New York; Getty Center, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; Osnabr¸ck Media Arts Festival; Chinsegutt Film Festival; Sound Culture, San Francisco; Digital Underground, London; Film Forum, New York; ArtRage, Perth; Anthology Film Archives, New York.
1996 Big Muddy Film Festival Anti-Establishment Award
1996 L.A. Film Critics Society Best Independent Film
1996 Atlanta Film Festival Best Documentary
1995 Jurors Choice, Black Maria & Florida Festivals
1993 San Francisco Foundation, Phelan Award in Film Arts
1992 San Francisco Bay Guardian "Goldie" Award
1992 Best Experimental Film: Ann Arbor, Humboldt, Utah & Louisville Festivals
1991 San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award
1988 Oberhausen Festival Braunschweig Award
