Mark Ewert
Encyclopedia
Marcus Ewert, previously known as Mark Ewert, is an American writer, actor and director, living in San Francisco.
Marcus Ewert began making and appearing in films in the 1990s. He has appeared in the Gus Van Sant
short film Four Naked Boys and a Gun, in Sadie Benning
's Flat Is Beautiful, and the movie Frisk
by Todd Verow
. In 2008, the feature film The Lollipop Generation
by G.B. Jones was released starring Mark Ewert in a lead role, alongside Jena von Brucker, Vaginal Davis
, Calvin Johnson, Joel Gibb
and Scott Treleaven
.
His first collaborative work as a director was with Joshua Tager: together they made A New Flag. He then began collaborating with David Crystallah, making several films together in 1998. These films played frequently at film festivals. In 1999, he began working with David Cutler. The two created Piki & Poko
, first released in the 2000s. These animated short flash cartoon
s created for the Internet
were immediately successful and have been distributed by Mondo Mini Shows
. There have been thirty three episodes scripted and twenty eight have been released. The episode entitled Taking The Dare! also appeared on Season 6 of the Emmy Award
winning PBS series, Independent Lens
. The series began airing on the Logo
channel in 2008, as part of the Alien Boot Camp animation anthology.
Marcus Ewert is also a writer. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies and other publications including the 2004 Lambda Literary Award
winning non-fiction anthology I Do/ I Don't. He has participated in the 'Litquake Literary Festival
' and the 'Porch Light' reading series, both held in San Francisco. He has appeared in such literary journals as Shampoo, Suspect Thoughts, Star*line, and For Immediate Release. He was co-editor (with Mitchell Watkins) of Ruh Roh, an anthology of artists' work that included pieces by Kathy Acker
, Allen Ginsberg
, Gregg Araki
, Clive Barker
, Sadie Benning
, Dennis Cooper
, Mike Diana
, G.B. Jones, Paul McCarthy
, Gus van Sant
, and many others. His first book 10,000 Dresses, illustrated by Rex Ray
, was published by Seven Stories Press
in September 2008.
Marcus Ewert is well known for being the last lover of William S. Burroughs
, which he has written about for publication, and as a lover of Allen Ginsberg
's while at Naropa University
. He is presently writing his memoirs of these, and other events.
Ewert has been the subject of the work of several artists; the writers Allen Ginsberg and Dennis Cooper
; and the photographers Daniel Nicoletta
, and Marc Gellar, whose well-known photos of Mark and Moon Trent are featured on the covers of two Pansy Division
CDs, Deflowered
(1994) and Wish I'd Taken Pictures
(1996).
Marcus Ewert began making and appearing in films in the 1990s. He has appeared in the Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
short film Four Naked Boys and a Gun, in Sadie Benning
Sadie Benning
Sadie Benning is a video maker, visual artist, and musician.She first made her name in the early 1990s as a teenage video maker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Raised by her mother in inner-city Milwaukee, Benning left school at age 16, primarily due to the homophobia she experienced...
's Flat Is Beautiful, and the movie Frisk
Frisk (film)
Frisk is a 1995 drama film, directed by Todd Verow, based on the 1991 novel by author Dennis Cooper. It is a first-person narrative about a serial killer. Dennis describes a series of ritual murders in letters to his sometime lover and best friend, Julian , and Julian's younger brother Kevin . It...
by Todd Verow
Todd Verow
Todd Verow is an American film director who now resides in New York City, New York. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the AFI Conservatory. Together with his creative partner, James Derek Dwyer, he formed Bangor Films in 1995. He was also the cinematographer for Jon Moritsugu's...
. In 2008, the feature film The Lollipop Generation
The Lollipop Generation
The Lollipop Generation is the first feature film by G.B. Jones.The Lollipop Generation premiered as the Gala Feature presentation of the Images Festival in Toronto on April 3, 2008....
by G.B. Jones was released starring Mark Ewert in a lead role, alongside Jena von Brucker, Vaginal Davis
Vaginal Davis
Vaginal Davis is an American genderqueer performing artist, painter, independent curator, composer, and writer. Davis's name is a homage to activist Angela Davis.-Life and career:Davis is often associated with the formation of the Queer-Core Zine Movement...
, Calvin Johnson, Joel Gibb
Joel Gibb
Joel Gibb is a Berlin-based Canadian artist and singer-songwriter who leads the "gay church folk" group The Hidden Cameras. He was born in Kincardine, Ontario.-Career:...
and Scott Treleaven
Scott Treleaven
Scott Treleaven is a Canadian artist whose work employs a variety of media including collage, film, video, drawing, photography and installation.-Artwork:...
.
His first collaborative work as a director was with Joshua Tager: together they made A New Flag. He then began collaborating with David Crystallah, making several films together in 1998. These films played frequently at film festivals. In 1999, he began working with David Cutler. The two created Piki & Poko
Piki & Poko
Piki And Poko: Adventures in Starland is a Flash cartoon by Mark Ewert and David Cutler for Mondo Mini Shows.An episode of Piki and Poko entitled Taking The Dare! also appeared on Season 6 of the Emmy Award winning PBS series, Independent Lens...
, first released in the 2000s. These animated short flash cartoon
Flash cartoon
A Flash animation or Flash cartoon is an animated film which is created using Adobe Flash or similar animation software and often distributed in the .swf file format. The term Flash animation not only refers to the file format but to a certain kind of movement and visual style which, in many...
s created for the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
were immediately successful and have been distributed by Mondo Mini Shows
Mondo Mini Shows
Mondo Mini Shows is an American company that produces animation targeted at teens and young adults. Mondo Mini Shows are distributed as an ad-supported, virtual animation channel via the Internet, podcasts and mobile...
. There have been thirty three episodes scripted and twenty eight have been released. The episode entitled Taking The Dare! also appeared on Season 6 of the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
winning PBS series, Independent Lens
Independent Lens
Airing weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...
. The series began airing on the Logo
Logo (TV channel)
Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...
channel in 2008, as part of the Alien Boot Camp animation anthology.
Marcus Ewert is also a writer. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies and other publications including the 2004 Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
winning non-fiction anthology I Do/ I Don't. He has participated in the 'Litquake Literary Festival
Litquake
Litquake is San Francisco's annual literary festival. Originally starting out as Litstock for a single day on July 16, 1999, it ran for two years under the same name before going dark in 2001 after 9/11...
' and the 'Porch Light' reading series, both held in San Francisco. He has appeared in such literary journals as Shampoo, Suspect Thoughts, Star*line, and For Immediate Release. He was co-editor (with Mitchell Watkins) of Ruh Roh, an anthology of artists' work that included pieces by Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer. She was strongly influenced by the Black Mountain School, William S...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Gregg Araki
Gregg Araki
Gregg Araki is an American independent filmmaker. He is involved in New Queer Cinema.-Early life:Araki was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Santa Barbara, California...
, Clive Barker
Clive Barker
Clive Barker is an English author, film director and visual artist best known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories which established him as a leading young horror writer...
, Sadie Benning
Sadie Benning
Sadie Benning is a video maker, visual artist, and musician.She first made her name in the early 1990s as a teenage video maker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Raised by her mother in inner-city Milwaukee, Benning left school at age 16, primarily due to the homophobia she experienced...
, Dennis Cooper
Dennis Cooper
Dennis Cooper is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist.-Career:Cooper grew up the son of a wealthy businessman in Arcadia, California. His first forays into literature came early, focusing on imitations of Rimbaud, Verlaine, de Sade, and Baudelaire...
, Mike Diana
Mike Diana
Michael Christopher "Mike" Diana is an underground cartoonist who became the first artist ever to receive a criminal conviction for obscenity for artwork in the United States.-Early life:...
, G.B. Jones, Paul McCarthy
Paul McCarthy
Paul McCarthy , is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.-Life:McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and studied art at the University of Utah in 1969. He went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute receiving a BFA in painting...
, Gus van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
, and many others. His first book 10,000 Dresses, illustrated by Rex Ray
Rex Ray
Rex Ray is an American fine artist and graphic designer based in San Francisco. His work has been exhibited at galleries and Museums throughout the US and Europe including Turner Carroll Gallery, Gallery 16, Crocker Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, MCA Denver...
, was published by Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press is an independent publishing company. Located in New York City, the company was founded by editor Dan Simon in 1995 after he parted company with Four Walls Eight Windows. The company was named for its seven founding authors: Annie Ernaux, Gary Null, the estate of Nelson Algren,...
in September 2008.
Marcus Ewert is well known for being the last lover of William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, which he has written about for publication, and as a lover of Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
's while at Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
. He is presently writing his memoirs of these, and other events.
Ewert has been the subject of the work of several artists; the writers Allen Ginsberg and Dennis Cooper
Dennis Cooper
Dennis Cooper is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist.-Career:Cooper grew up the son of a wealthy businessman in Arcadia, California. His first forays into literature came early, focusing on imitations of Rimbaud, Verlaine, de Sade, and Baudelaire...
; and the photographers Daniel Nicoletta
Daniel Nicoletta
Daniel Nicoletta is an American photographer, photo journalist and gay rights activist.-Biography:Born in New York City, Daniel Nicoletta was raised in Utica, NY. In his late teens he left New York to attend San Francisco State University, later graduating from the Bachelor of Arts program...
, and Marc Gellar, whose well-known photos of Mark and Moon Trent are featured on the covers of two Pansy Division
Pansy Division
Pansy Division is an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California in 1991. Featuring primarily gay musicians and focusing mostly on gay-related themes, Pansy Division is one of the more melodic-oriented bands to emerge from the "queercore" movement that began in the 1980s.-Early...
CDs, Deflowered
Deflowered
Deflowered is the second album by queercore band Pansy Division.The cover features a photograph of Mark Ewert and Moon Trent , taken by Marc Gellar.-Track listing:#"Reciprocate" – 2:52#"Groovy Underwear" – 3:38#"Anonymous" – 2:55...
(1994) and Wish I'd Taken Pictures
Wish I'd Taken Pictures
Wish I'd Taken Pictures is the fourth album by queercore band Pansy Division.The front and back covers feature photographs of Mark Ewert and Moon Trent, taken by Marc Geller.-Track listing:#"Horny In the Morning" – 1:35#"Vanilla" – 2:08...
(1996).
As Director
- Piki & PokoPiki & PokoPiki And Poko: Adventures in Starland is a Flash cartoon by Mark Ewert and David Cutler for Mondo Mini Shows.An episode of Piki and Poko entitled Taking The Dare! also appeared on Season 6 of the Emmy Award winning PBS series, Independent Lens...
(with David Cutler) 2002 - (Thirty Three episodes) - Porno Bondage (with David Cutler) 1999
- Baby Spice With Angel Dust ( with David Crystallah) 1998
- Dickcam: Balls & Nuts (with David Crystallah) 1998
- Inside Scoop (with David Crystallah) 1998
- Lesbian Separatist Barbie (with David Crystallah) 1998
- A New Flag (with Joshua Tager) 1996
As Actor
- The Lollipop GenerationThe Lollipop GenerationThe Lollipop Generation is the first feature film by G.B. Jones.The Lollipop Generation premiered as the Gala Feature presentation of the Images Festival in Toronto on April 3, 2008....
, directed by G.B. Jones, 2008 - Flat Is Beautiful, directed by Sadie BenningSadie BenningSadie Benning is a video maker, visual artist, and musician.She first made her name in the early 1990s as a teenage video maker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Raised by her mother in inner-city Milwaukee, Benning left school at age 16, primarily due to the homophobia she experienced...
, 1998 - FriskFrisk (film)Frisk is a 1995 drama film, directed by Todd Verow, based on the 1991 novel by author Dennis Cooper. It is a first-person narrative about a serial killer. Dennis describes a series of ritual murders in letters to his sometime lover and best friend, Julian , and Julian's younger brother Kevin . It...
, directed by Todd VerowTodd VerowTodd Verow is an American film director who now resides in New York City, New York. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the AFI Conservatory. Together with his creative partner, James Derek Dwyer, he formed Bangor Films in 1995. He was also the cinematographer for Jon Moritsugu's...
, 1996 - Four Naked Boys and a Gun, directed by Gus Van SantGus Van SantGus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
Publications
- 10,000 Dresses, Marcus Ewert, illustrations by Rex RayRex RayRex Ray is an American fine artist and graphic designer based in San Francisco. His work has been exhibited at galleries and Museums throughout the US and Europe including Turner Carroll Gallery, Gallery 16, Crocker Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, MCA Denver...
, Seven Stories PressSeven Stories PressSeven Stories Press is an independent publishing company. Located in New York City, the company was founded by editor Dan Simon in 1995 after he parted company with Four Walls Eight Windows. The company was named for its seven founding authors: Annie Ernaux, Gary Null, the estate of Nelson Algren,...
, 2008 ISBN 1583228500 - Twenty Epics, "Choose Your Own Epic Adventure", edited by Susan Groppi and David Moles, Lulu, 2006: ISBN 978-1847280664
- Best Gay Erotica 2006, edited by Richard Labonte and Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Cleis PressCleis PressCleis Press is an independent publisher of books in the areas of sexuality, erotica, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, fiction, and human rights. The press was founded in 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, later moved to San Francisco, and is now based out of Berkeley, CA...
, 2006: ISBN 978-1573442251 - I Do/ I Don't: Queers On Marriage, edited by Greg Wharton and Ian Philips, Suspect Thoughts Press, 2004: ISBN 0-9746388-7-0
- Pills, Chills, Thrills and Heartache: Adventures in the First Person, edited by Michelle TeaMichelle TeaMichelle Tea is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, prostitution, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts and currently lives in San Francisco...
and Clint CatalystClint CatalystClint Catalyst is an American author, actor, spoken word performer, and stylist.Catalyst has covered music, fashion, LGBT issues, and popular culture for magazines including LA Weekly, Frontiers, Out, Surface and Swindle.-Early life:Born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Catalyst was raised an only child...
, Alyson PublicationsAlyson PublicationsAlyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, is a book publishing house which specialises in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the home of award-winning books in the areas of memoir,...
, 2004 ISBN 9781555837532 - Van Gogh's Ear, French Connection Press, 2003, ISBN 2914853017
- Ruh Roh, edited by Mark Ewert and Mitchell Watkins, published by Feature Inc. and Instituting Contemporary Idea, NYC, 1992