William Farley

A group of anonymous young people embark on an apparently random journey through a disjointed San Francisco cityscape. Along their travels they encounter a succession of madmen and eccentrics, portrayed by various West Coast performance artists, whose impassioned monologues and improvisations satirize the institutions of contemporary American society.

An affirmative view of life and death. The images are almost without exception from the nineteen fifties; a ship launching, a woman dancing, a tree falling, a train passing- impersonal subjects which none the less are icons and metaphors for our most personal thoughts. Image after image emerge from darkness and hurl us toward remembrances of the purity and conflict that are part of our collective experiences of being alive. Music by David Byrne.

Satirizes television pitches, art schools, and the self-importance of artists.

People in the entertainment industry recognize Darryl Henriques as an immensely talented comedian: one who creates a unique and biting commentary on modern life. Yet, up until now he's been unable to break through and make a living as a performer. This is mostly because Darryl is driven to speak the truth, as he sees it, even when it conflicts with his ambitions. All his life, Darryl has been caught between his desire for success and his need to challenge authority - both on and off stage. At times, Darryl deliberately alienates his audience with his improvised routines and then tries to win them back. Such theatrics give pause to the people who could help Darryl to become more of a commercial success. This film is a portrait of an artist struggling to come to terms with his eccentricities as he attempts to gain access to a larger audience without compromising his spontaneity or the integrity of his humor.

A taxi driver and his expecting girlfriend find their lives disrupted by the arrival of an Irish literary maverick.

This documentary celebrates the life of a devoted musician: Pandit Pran Nath. The last in a long line of north Indian vocal masters in the Kirana style of Indian classical music, we trace his journey from India, accompanied by his disciple, the avant-garde composer Terry Riley, in their search for purity of expression.

A man sits drinking beer in front of his TV. The program that he occasionally glances at is a montage of popular culture images: old movies, commercials, and news clips. Accompanying the fleeting images is a loosely synchronous narrative on the evolution of man's belief systems. The man's behavior watching television becomes a commentary on contemporary culture; the relationship between public information and private consciousness, and the nature of reality.

Jerry Ross Barrish sees the beauty in—and creates the unexpected out of—discarded materials. The son of hard-working Jewish immigrants with crime-family connections, Barrish worked for 50 years as a bail bondsman, much of it for radical protesters. He stumbled into acclaim as a filmmaker, earning the Museum of Modern Art’s prestigious New Director distinction and winning major European awards along the way. Then one day, inspiration struck as he picked up plastic trash on a beach, leading him to launch a whole new career as a sculptor. Though acclaimed by curators, he long went virtually unnoticed in the commercial-art realm. But at age 75, the unassuming Barrish may finally be on the verge of success, as William Farley’s engaging documentary goes to show. Seeing the playfulness of his pieces, you’ll understand why: with artificial materials, he has managed to capture real life. -Denver Film Society

A dense assemblage of excerpts from television commercials juxtaposed to a soundtack of extraordinary facts about human beings. MADE FOR TELEVISION presents a humorous and critical view of TV advertising manipulation.

This film documents a conversation I had with a fellow crew member aboard a cargo ship in the South China Sea. The story revolves around the actual confession from this seaman of his involvement in the accidental death of a group of Korean fisherman and his compliance in not trying to rescue them. The film is edited in a manner which allows the story to unfold without revealing the identity of the storyteller.

This film has taken one of the many tragedies buried in American history which befell the American Indian and through the voice of Dennis Banks, creates a tight and perceptive visual and aural telling and interpretation of the events. The selection of images, their iconography and meaning, effectively explored through juxtaposition, creates a powerful work. (John Hanhardt, Curator of Film and Video, Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York, N.Y.)