Harrod Blank
Directing
Biography
Harrod Blank is a California native who grew up in the Bonny Doon Mountains of Santa Cruz, where he attended high school and college. In 1989, he moved to Berkeley, where he currently lives part-time. When Harrod Blank first realized that his '65 VW Beetle could be treated as a canvas, the result was "Oh My God!". Painted like a beach ball with a bumper of plastic fruit & rubber chickens, a chalkboard on back and a TV on the roof, the car was the catalyst for his remarkable career. Initially, Blank thought he was the only one in the world with an Art Car, and at times felt quite alienated. This would change, as he gradually learned from supporters that there were other such cars, spread out across the country. Drawing from what he had learned from his father, filmmaker Les Blank, and the BA in Theater Arts/Film he earned at UC Santa Cruz in 1986, Blank began photographing other Art Cars. Subsequently, he raised money through private investors and took out loans as needed to finance the 64-minute documentary he dreamed of making: Wild Wheels (1992). To his credit, over 55 million people worldwide have now seen the film. Blank initially distributed "Wild Wheels", featuring 46 Art Cars and their respective artists, by driving "Oh My God!" with the film to 50 cities across the country. Publicity from the tour gained the interest of PBS, which broadcast the film repeatedly as a National Special in 1993. The following year, Blank's photography was featured in a companion book, "Wild Wheels" (Pomegranate, 1994; Blank Books, 2001), which was named "Best Book for Young Adults" by the American Library Association. Blending his passion for Art Cars and his love of photography, Blank was inspired by a dream to attach 1,705 cameras to a 1972 Dodge van. Cleverly hiding ten working cameras among the rest, Blank had finally found a way to capture on film the public's candid expressions of awe and delight. In 1995, Blank drove the "Camera Van" to New York City for its official "debut" and shot over 5,000 photographs for a photography exhibit, "I've Got A Vision". In 1995, still enthusiastic about the beauty and power of Art Cars, Blank began production of a feature-length sequel to Wild Wheels (1992). A short version of the film (Driving the Dream (1998), 29 minutes) was broadcast on TBS's National Geographic Explorer in October 1997 to help raise money for the epic feature-length film, Automorphosis (2009), was premiered January 2009 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Thirteen years in the making, "Automorphosis" is considered Harrod's life's work up to this point. Blank made his third Art Car in 1998, an interactive mariachi-themed music mobile called "Pico De Gallo", later unveiled in his new book, "Art Cars: the Cars, the Artists, the Obsession, the Craft" (Lark Books, 2002). Gene Shalit heralded the book on the Today (1952) Show as his favorite holiday gift suggestion. The Petersen Automotive Museum hosted a major exhibition of Art Cars in Spring 2003, of which Harrod Blank was Guest Curator. As of July 2010, Blank is releasing Automorphosis (2009), and is editing "Burning Man: the Movie", a documentary film thirteen years in the making about the radical arts festival. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Harrod Blank
Known For
Aliens disguised as clowns crash land on Earth in a rural town to capture unsuspecting victims in cotton candy cocoons for later consumption.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
At her 25th high school reunion, Peggy Sue faints and awakens in 1960—back in her senior year, before her marriage and all her regrets. Given a second chance to relive her youth, she must decide whether to change the choices that shaped her life or embrace the past that made her who she is.
Peggy Sue Got Married
Directors Werner Herzog and Errol Morris make a bet which results in Herzog living up to his promise that he would eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed the film Gates of Heaven.
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
A zesty paean of praise to the greater glories of garlic. This lip-smacking foray into the history, consumption, cultivation and culinary/curative powers of the stinking rose features chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, and a flavorful musical soundtrack. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1999.
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers
A charming valentine to women born with a space between their teeth, ranging from lighthearted whimsy to a deeper look at issues like self-esteem and societal attitudes toward standards of beauty. Interviews were conducted with over one hundred women, including model Lauren Hutton and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Gap-Toothed Women
Roland drives a dada art gallery on wheels and attracts more girls than he knows what to do with. Unfortunately, they rarely stick around. Can it be his chicken imitations? His dead animal skulls? His green body make-up? Can a handsome boy who feels like a Martian find happiness with earth girls? And if not, then with who? Or what?
In the Land of the Owl Turds
This aloha-filled portrait of Auntie Irmgard Farden Aluli, one of Hawaii's best loved composers, gently focuses on Hawai'ian women's contributions to the family structure, art, music and dance. An intimate glimpse into the real culture of the islands.
Puamana
In 1964, Les Blank filmed 45 minutes of motorcycles for a documentary film that was never completed. Before his death in 2013, he asked his son Harrod Blank to cut the footage to the music of The 13th Floor Elevators. Edited by Ben Abrams, this film captures the vastness of the American West at a time when the motorcycle was the ultimate in highway adventure.
Motorcycle Moment
AUTOMORPHOSIS looks into the minds and hearts of a delightful collection of eccentrics, visionaries, and just plain folks who have transformed their autos into artworks.
Automorphosis
Les Blank brings us the life and work of self-taught, visual artist Butch Anthony, who hails from the small town of Seale in Southeastern Alabama. Butch is a rare individual with a unique ability to see the potential in objects that others take for granted. He is considered one of the top naïve artists in Alabama, and, as his artwork is shown in museums around the country, he is becoming a national treasure. Blank’s camera follows Butch to various folk art festivals around the South, visiting the friends and artists who inspired him to create art. Blank also observes Butch’s life in Alabama’s rural landscape. From ‘coon hunting to “calling up” alligators and digging up fossils, Butch Anthony shows us a South not known to many outsiders.
You Can't Squeeze Blood Out Of A Turnip
Following a brief statement by Ry Cooder on his thoughts about performing - and improvising - on stage, this concert film depicts Cooder's 1987 live show in Santa Cruz, California, which was part of his "Get Rhythm" world tour.
Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let's Have a Ball
Huey Lewis And The News: BEFORE! follows one of the world’s top rock-and-roll bands of the 80’s and a crew of fifty technicians to the Bahamas for the making of a music video for their number one hit single, “Stuck With You” for their album, “FORE!” Blank takes us behind the scenes for an off-beat look at what happens when a song is transformed into visuals and musicians are transformed into actors. Hidden in the straightforward reportage are sly comments on the MTV machine, sexism in the media, and the business of rock-and-roll. Best of all, Huey Lewis and the News maintain their sense of humor even when absurdity threatens to overwhelm them.
Huey Lewis and the News: Before!
Les Blank's first feature-length documentary captures music and other events at Leon Russell's Oklahoma recording studio during a three-year period (1972-1974).
A Poem Is a Naked Person
A documentary spotlighting "car-art" in America.
Wild Wheels
Every Year in New Orleans, Louisiana the Mardi Gras Indian tribes gather on the Sunday closest to St. Joseph’s Day to celebrate their pride and joy. Influenced by his father Les Blank, son Harrod Blank joins the parade with his camera. This is a tribute piece to “Always for Pleasure”.
Warriors of Joy: A Native American Celebration in Louisiana
Harrod Blank, who took us into the world of art cars with his epic first film, Wild Wheels, now focuses more in-depth on a few select art vehicles, the Grass Bus, the Hamburger Harley, and the Camera Van. As with his previous film, and the following one (Automorphosis) Blank takes a dauntless look at American car culture.
Driving the Dream
An obsessively-made documentary, filmed over 16 years, exploring the creative life and adventures of the eccentric artist and entrepreneur Harrod Blank. From his youth growing up in the woods with chickens and working as a camera assistant for his father- the venerable film-maker Les Blank- to the creation of his first attention-getting artcar, to his current multi-faceted career as creator and head of a nationwide art car movement, all the while pursuing his visions of non-conformity. Featuring interviews with his girl-friends, his mom, his brother, his raconteur lifelong pal, Kevin, as well as Blank’s own painful yet hilarious self-examinations. With special appearances by Les Blank and many fine art car artists. “The pressure to conform is incredible, ” says Blank, “but I don’t care what other people think. The reason I’m alive is to create.”
Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank!
A portrait of Leonard Knight and his visionary monument, Salvation Mountain. Painted with 18 coats of donated latex paint, Salvation Mountain, was created over many years, and shows how one man's determination and faith can make for quite a majestic achievement.
Salvation Mountain - Leonard Knight
Rusty, a male race enthusiast, decides at 53 to get breasts. His father cuts his pay, his motorcycle friends abandon him and the women he dates all reject him. Rusty pursues her new identity and only hopes to gain acceptance from others.
Why Can't I Be Me? Around You
A heartwarming portrait of an Idaho hermit, Richard “Dugout Dick” Zimmerman, who lived in caves that he dug on the banks of the Salmon River. It was the hope of finding precious metals that kept him digging and mining, but ultimately it was his simple life of living off the land that sustained him.