Bill Daniel (Filmmaker)
Encyclopedia
Bill Daniel is an American experimental
documentary film
artist, photographer, film editor, and cinematographer
. He is also an installation art
ist, curator
and former zine publisher
. His full length film, Who is Bozo Texino? about the tradition of hobo
and railworker boxcar graffiti
was completed in 2005 and has screened extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Bill Daniel has collaborated with several artists from the Bay Area Mission School
art movement, notably Margaret Kilgallen
, and has worked on multiple projects with underground director Craig Baldwin
. Film/video artist Vanessa Renwick of the Oregon Department of Kick Ass has been a frequent touring partner, collaborator and co-curator.
Bill Daniel has received numerous awards including grants from the Film Arts Foundation, Creative Capital, the R&B Feber Charitable Foundation for the Beaux Arts and residencies at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
, the Headlands Center for the Arts and the Center for Land Use Interpretation
. His films have been featured at numerous film festivals including the prestigious Viennale
or Vienna International Film Festival, The Portland Art Museum
's Northwest Film and Video Festival (where his Selective Service System Story was awarded best documentary film), and the True/False Festival, where he has been a panelist. In 2006, Bill Daniel was a judge for the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival.
A wide variety of locations have served as venues for Bill Daniel's film and installation works, from urban rooftops and abandoned drive-in movie theaters to Jonas Mekas'
Anthology Film Archives
and the Independent Film Channel
. A very select listing of the numerous locations Bill Daniel has screened his films at (in person) include Center for Documentary Studies in Durham NC, Houston's Aurora Picture Show, Mini-Cine in Shreveport, the Los Angeles Film Forum, the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Deitch Projects
in NYC, and New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles.
Bill Daniel was born in Houston, Texas and has lived and worked in Austin, New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Portland and Shreveport. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin where he majored in Marketing. His brother Lee Daniel
is also a cinematographer and is best known for his work with director Richard Linklater
.
This 55 min. experimental
documentary film
was shot primarily in black & white 8mm
& 16mm film and was subsequently digitally edited. With a goal of tracing the true identity behind Bozo Texino, whose iconic hand-drawn cowboy logo has appeared on the sides of trains for nearly a century, Bill Daniel hopped boxcar
s with drifters and camped in hobo
jungles, all the while collecting stories and images of a little known American folk art
tradition.
Installed at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, this mixed-media installation
featured an RV partially converted into a houseboat
with projected video images on one side. Documentary footage of the search for Noah's Ark
combined with characters like a homeless preacher, a punk-pirate and other "water-squatters" explored themes of modern environmental collapse & survivalism
.
Video installation
using interview footage of working-class residents of the gulf coast fishing town Seadrift who are combating industrial pollution from a neighboring plastic plant. The video segments were shown framed by pictures and windows on a mock living room wall at Tacoma's Tollbooth Gallery
.
Hobo campfire installation
with film projections at Deitch Projects
gallery in New York for "Widely Unknown" group show. Also shown on the nationwide "Lucky Bum Film Tour" with Vanessa Renwick, this installation included footage from what would become the full-length film "Who is Bozo Texino".
Created for the Independent Film Channel's
Split Screen series, this documentary revisits the 1970 short film Selective Service System and interviews Dan Lovejoy and Warren Haack, who made the graphic depiction of an individual's attempt to avoid the Vietnam War
draft
as film students at San Francisco State University
.
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
artist, photographer, film editor, and cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
. He is also an installation art
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
ist, curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
and former zine publisher
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
. His full length film, Who is Bozo Texino? about the tradition of hobo
Hobo
A hobo is a term which is often applied to a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, often penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States during the last decade of the 19th century. Unlike 'tramps', who work only when they are forced to, and 'bums', who do not...
and railworker boxcar graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
was completed in 2005 and has screened extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Bill Daniel has collaborated with several artists from the Bay Area Mission School
Mission School
The Mission School is an art movement of the 1990s and 2000s, centered in the Mission District of San Francisco, California.-History and characteristics:...
art movement, notably Margaret Kilgallen
Margaret Kilgallen
Margaret Leisha Kilgallen was a San Francisco Bay Area artist. Though a contemporary artist, her work showed a strong influence from folk art. She was considered a central figure in the Bay Area Mission School art movement....
, and has worked on multiple projects with underground director Craig Baldwin
Craig Baldwin
Craig Baldwin is an American experimental filmmaker. He uses “found” footage from the fringes of popular consciousness as well as images from the mass media to undermine and transform the traditional documentary, infusing it with the energy of high-speed montage and a provocative commentary that...
. Film/video artist Vanessa Renwick of the Oregon Department of Kick Ass has been a frequent touring partner, collaborator and co-curator.
Bill Daniel has received numerous awards including grants from the Film Arts Foundation, Creative Capital, the R&B Feber Charitable Foundation for the Beaux Arts and residencies at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a multi-disiplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse...
, the Headlands Center for the Arts and the Center for Land Use Interpretation
Center for Land Use Interpretation
The Center for Land Use Interpretation is a non-profit "research organization involved in exploring, examining, and understanding land and landscape issues...
. His films have been featured at numerous film festivals including the prestigious Viennale
Viennale
The Vienna International Film Festival, or Viennale, is a film festival taking place every October since 1960 in Vienna, Austria.The average number of visitors is about 75,000. Traditional cinema venues are Gartenbaukino, Urania, Metro-Kino, Filmmuseum and Stadtkino...
or Vienna International Film Festival, The Portland Art Museum
Portland Art Museum
The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the United States. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum became one of the twenty-five largest art museums in...
's Northwest Film and Video Festival (where his Selective Service System Story was awarded best documentary film), and the True/False Festival, where he has been a panelist. In 2006, Bill Daniel was a judge for the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival.
A wide variety of locations have served as venues for Bill Daniel's film and installation works, from urban rooftops and abandoned drive-in movie theaters to Jonas Mekas'
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
Anthology Film Archives
Anthology Film Archives
__notoc__Anthology Film Archives is a film archive and theater located at 32 Second Avenue on the corner of East Second Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City devoted to the preservation and exhibition of experimental film. It is the only non-profit organization of its...
and the Independent Film Channel
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
. A very select listing of the numerous locations Bill Daniel has screened his films at (in person) include Center for Documentary Studies in Durham NC, Houston's Aurora Picture Show, Mini-Cine in Shreveport, the Los Angeles Film Forum, the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Deitch Projects
Deitch Projects
Deitch Projects was a contemporary art gallery in New York City founded by Jeffrey Deitch.-History:Since opening with a performance by Vanessa Beecroft in February 1996, the gallery has presented nearly one hundred and eighteen solo exhibitions and projects, ten thematic exhibitions, and a few...
in NYC, and New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles.
Bill Daniel was born in Houston, Texas and has lived and worked in Austin, New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Portland and Shreveport. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin where he majored in Marketing. His brother Lee Daniel
Lee Daniel
Lee Daniel is a cinematographer. He was born Lee Cavender Daniel in Dallas, Texas on 23 January 1962. His best known film is Dazed and Confused, directed by Richard Linklater. Daniel has worked on many of Linklater's films and worked with Linklater as a co-founder of the Austin Film Society. He is...
is also a cinematographer and is best known for his work with director Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater
-Early life:Linklater was born in Houston, Texas. He studied at Sam Houston State University and left midway through his stint in college to work on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While working on the rig he read a lot of literature, but on land he developed a love of film through...
.
Selected Films & Installations
- Who is Bozo Texino? (2005)
This 55 min. experimental
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
was shot primarily in black & white 8mm
8 mm film
8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...
& 16mm film and was subsequently digitally edited. With a goal of tracing the true identity behind Bozo Texino, whose iconic hand-drawn cowboy logo has appeared on the sides of trains for nearly a century, Bill Daniel hopped boxcar
Boxcar
A boxcar is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry general freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads...
s with drifters and camped in hobo
Hobo
A hobo is a term which is often applied to a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, often penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States during the last decade of the 19th century. Unlike 'tramps', who work only when they are forced to, and 'bums', who do not...
jungles, all the while collecting stories and images of a little known American folk art
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
tradition.
- Soul's Harbor (2003)
Installed at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, this mixed-media installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
featured an RV partially converted into a houseboat
Houseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
with projected video images on one side. Documentary footage of the search for Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
combined with characters like a homeless preacher, a punk-pirate and other "water-squatters" explored themes of modern environmental collapse & survivalism
Survivalism
Survivalism is a movement of individuals or groups who are actively preparing for future possible disruptions in local, regional, national, or international social or political order...
.
- Seadrift Texas 1990 (2002)
Video installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
using interview footage of working-class residents of the gulf coast fishing town Seadrift who are combating industrial pollution from a neighboring plastic plant. The video segments were shown framed by pictures and windows on a mock living room wall at Tacoma's Tollbooth Gallery
Tollbooth Gallery
The Tollbooth Gallery is a public art project that bills itself as the World's Smallest Gallery dedicated to Wheat Paste and Video Fine Arts. It is a project of ArtRod, a nonprofit arts organization and is located in Tacoma, Washington, USA...
.
- The Girl on the Train in the Moon (2001)
Hobo campfire installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
with film projections at Deitch Projects
Deitch Projects
Deitch Projects was a contemporary art gallery in New York City founded by Jeffrey Deitch.-History:Since opening with a performance by Vanessa Beecroft in February 1996, the gallery has presented nearly one hundred and eighteen solo exhibitions and projects, ten thematic exhibitions, and a few...
gallery in New York for "Widely Unknown" group show. Also shown on the nationwide "Lucky Bum Film Tour" with Vanessa Renwick, this installation included footage from what would become the full-length film "Who is Bozo Texino".
- Selective Service System Story (1998)
Created for the Independent Film Channel's
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
Split Screen series, this documentary revisits the 1970 short film Selective Service System and interviews Dan Lovejoy and Warren Haack, who made the graphic depiction of an individual's attempt to avoid the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
draft
Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
as film students at San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
.