UbuWeb Film UbuWebRoddy Bogawa (b. 1962)
THE IMAGINED, THE LONGED-FOR, THE CONQUERED, AND THE SUBLIME (1994)
I’M SIMPLY OVERWHELMED, I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY - THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH. GOOD NIGHT. (2002)
MEMYSELFANDI (2010)
Born in Los Angeles, Japanese-American Roddy Bogawa studied art and played in punk bands before turning to filmmaking. He received his MFA degree from the University of California at San Diego where he made his first two short films which have screened extensively in festivals, museums, and national and international art galleries. In 1991, he directed his first feature, the experimental narrative SOME DIVINE WIND. A mixture of fictional and documentary material, this expressionistic film focused on the paradox of assimilation while trying to hold on to one’s cultural perspective. The film was selected for the Sundance Film Festival (Dramatic Competition), the Mannheim International Film Festival (Germany), the Asian American International Film Festival (New York), the Hawaii International Film Festival, and the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival (Japan). SOME DIVINE WIND has also shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the 1993 Biennial Exhibition of the Whitney Museum of American Art and has been broadcast on New York WNET’s Independent Focus and WDR First German Television. His second feature film JUNK was praised by critic Amy Taubin as ‘everything indie film no longer is’ having its premiere at the New York Underground and as well as screening at the Museum of Modern Art, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival and Exground Filmfest in Wiesbaden. His more recent short films have been featured in the New York Film Festival, Oberhausen Festival Internationale, the Black Maria Film and Video Festival (Director’s Choice Prize), and the 1995 Biennial Exhibition of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Cinematexas Short Film Festival. TAKEN BY STORM: THE ART OF STORM THORGERSON AND HIPGNOSIS, a documentary on the work the British graphic designer Storm Thorgerson had its premiere at South By Southwest and was the centerpiece film at Documentary Fortnight at MoMA in 2012. In 2013, he was the subject of a mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art titled IF FILMS COULD SMELL. A book on his work is forthcoming in September of 2015 published by Kaya Press.