Chel White | |
|---|---|
 Chel White, Paris, 2013 | |
| Born | (1959-05-30)May 30, 1959 (age 65) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Antioch University |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, composer |
| Years active | 1985-present |
Chel White (born May 30, 1959) is anAmericanfilm director,composer,screenwriter andvisual effects artist. In his independent films and music videos, White is known for his stylized, often experimental use of images, unusual animation and narratives depicting an outsider's perspective. He often adopts darkly humorous and poetic sensibilities to explore topics of love, obsession and alienation; with dreams and the subconscious being his greatest influences.[1] He describes his own work as “stories and images that reside on the brink of dreams, or linger on the periphery of distorted memories.”[2] ARockefeller Fellow, Chel White has made three films based on the work ofPeabody Award-winning writer and radio personalityJoe Frank (Dirt,Soulmate,Magda ).[3]
Chale Nafus of theAustin Film Society says, "I have been amazed at the stylistic and thematic diversity in (Chel White’s) films. Surreal, ethereal, wistful, and witty, I just allow my imagination to be taken into his complex, mysterious worlds.”[4] TheAustin Chronicle says, "(Chel White's) work seems to dispatch itself in some secret, subversive code, flashing messages amid animation, obscure stock footage, and actors with crazy eyes."[5]
Chel White has directed music videos for Radiohead'sThom Yorke,[6]The Melvins,[7]Tom Brosseau,Chrystabell &David Lynch, and collaborated with theOregon Symphony.[8] He has worked extensively with film directorGus Van Sant, creating visual effects on several of Van Sant's projects.[9] White began directing commercials in 1992, and with a focus instop motion, began directing television programs in 1999, including two parodies forSaturday Night Live. Along with Ray Di Carlo andDavid Daniels, Chel White is a co-founder of the international production companyBent Image Lab[10] inPortland, Oregon.
Chel White was born inKansas City, Missouri and grew up inColorado,Michigan,Stockholm, andEvanston, Illinois where his father was aNorthwestern University professor and his mother a schoolteacher.[11] White cites his earliest influence as being theSurrealist paintings he was exposed to in grade school when visiting theArt Institute of Chicago.[12] He began making films in high school where, studying under instructors Peter Kingsbury and Kevin Dole, he was introduced to the films ofNorman McLaren,Harry Everett Smith,Bruce Conner,Maya Deren,Kenneth Anger,Will Hindle,Len Lye andJean Cocteau. White recalls, "When I was 16, I realized animation was the bridge between being an artist and a filmmaker. At that point I never looked back."[13] In 1984, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Arts, with a central focus on experimental film, fromAntioch College. During his time in Antioch College, he was in a band named The Blackouts, withJohn Flansburgh, who later formed the bandThey Might Be Giants.[14]
Chel White began making independent short films after college, starting with adrawn-on-film animation titledMetal Dogs of India (1985).[12] In 1991, White completedChoreography for Copy Machine (Photocopy Cha Cha), an animated film created solely by using the unique photographic capabilities of a photocopier to generate sequential pictures of hands, faces, and other body parts.[15] The film is widely considered the first noteworthy animated film using this technique.[16]The Washington Post describes it as “(a) musical frolic which wittily builds on ghostly, distorted images crossing the plate glass of a copier.”[17] The films that followed includeDirt (1998),Soulmate (2000),Passage (2001),Magda (2004),A Painful Glimpse Into My Writing Process in Less Than 60 Seconds (2005),Wind (2007), the feature filmBucksville (2011), the Donald Trump horror parodyLittle Donnie (2017), andDreams of a Fallen Astronaut (2020) part of the Gratzfilm omnibusThe One Minute Memoir.[18]
In 2002, as a poetic response to the tragedies of September 11, Chel White createdNew York to be part of the omnibus collectionUnderground Zero. TheChicago Tribune called White's film "an eerie paean to the city itself,"[19] and Bill Stamets of theChicago Reader said, “Chel White’sNew York makes a ruined city enchanted again: jets ascend in twilight, framed by silhouetted rooftops and cranes, and droplets sparkle like tiny diamonds as kids delight in the spray of fire hydrants."[20]
White's 2007 short film,Wind, was commissioned byRadiohead’s creative director Dilly Gent and the climate change awareness groupLive Earth.The New York Times Magazine describes it as “(a) beautiful film, very moving, set to a poem by Antonio Machado and narrated by Alec Baldwin.”[21] Using aRobert Bly translation of the poem,Wind creates a metaphor for humanity's lack of planet stewardship. Along with eight other Live Earth commissioned films, "Wind" made its world premiere in the opening night program of the 2007Tribeca Film Festival with keynote speakerAl Gore.[22]
The films of Chel White have screened in theSundance Film Festival,[23]Berlinale,IFFR,[24]SXSW,Ottawa International Animation Festival,Annecy Festival,Hiroshima International Animation Festival,[25]HKIFF,SIFF, and theEdinburgh International Film Festival. 2012 saw the release ofBucksville, Chel White's directorialfeature film debut. Written and produced well before theOccupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and the 2016 Trump presidential election,Bucksville is a dark but eerily beautiful and prescient story about a young man who struggles to escape the reality of being bound for life to a disenfranchised, small town radicalmilitia started 20 years ago by his father.[26] Distributed byPhase 4 Films,Bucksville stars Thomas Stroppel,Ted Rooney and Allen Nause, with a cameo role byTom Berenger as The Patron of Justice. Thescreenplay is by Laura McGie[27] and Chel White, with music byTom Brosseau. Jamie S. Rich ofThe Oregonian calls Bucksville, “An insightful portrayal of an extreme point of view without the expected self-righteous critique.”[28]
White's museum screenings include theVan Gogh Museum[29]The Brooklyn Museum, TheMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston and TheHigh Museum in Atlanta. His retrospective presentations include theAnn Arbor Film Festival (1999 and 2002),[30]Southern Circuit (2002), theAustin Film Society (2003),[31] a 20-year career retrospective at theNorthwest Film Center (Portland Art Museum)[32] (2012), and aBent Image Lab retrospective and masterclass at theOttawa International Animation Festival (2018).[33] Chel White is the recipient of media artsFellowships from TheRockefeller Foundation[34] TheRegional Arts & Culture Council,[35] Portland Oregon, and project grants fromCreative Capital, the Pacific Pioneer Fund and theOregon Arts Commission.Fever Dreams and Heavenly Nightmares, a DVD compilation of Chel White's shortindependent films, was released in 2006 by Microcinema International.[4]
Chel White is featured as one of six interviewees in Martin Cooper's feature documentaryHistory, Mystery & Odyssey: The Lives and Work of Six Portland Animators (2023). The other interviewees areJoan C. Gratz,Jim Blashfield,Joanna Priestley,Rose Bond and Zak Margolis.[36] The film premiered at the 2023Ottawa International Animation Festival.[37]
Chel White started his professional career in 1986, working as ananimator forfilm directorJim Blashfield on music videos forPaul Simon,Tears for Fears andMichael Jackson. In 1991, he began creating visual effects for directorGus Van Sant, starting withMy Own Private Idaho (1991). White went on to bevisual effects supervisor on Van Sant'sEven Cowgirls Get The Blues (1993),Paranoid Park (2007),Milk[9] (2008) andRestless (2011), as well as title effects supervisor on directorTodd Haynes' film,I'm Not There,[38] and the animation sequences inDavid Oyelowo's feature film,The Water Man (2020).[39]
White directed two shorts forNBC'sSaturday Night Live andRobert Smigel'sSaturday TV Funhouse,The Narrator That Ruined Christmas (season 27, episode 9)[40] andBlue Christmas (season 30, episode 8).[41] Both are parodies of theRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television special (1964). Airing first on December 15, 2001,The Narrator That Ruined Christmas was written byRobert Smigel, Michael Gordon,Louis CK andStephen Colbert, with the voices ofChris Parnell,Maya Rudolph,Amy Poehler,Doug Dale, andRobert Smigel.[41] Airing first on December 18, 2004,Blue Christmas was written by Robert Smigel and Michelle Saks Smigel with additional material byRich Blomquist, Stephen Colbert,Scott Jacobson, and Matt O'Brien, and voices by Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Erik Bergmann, andRobert Smigel. The success of the SNL shorts led to other holiday themedstop motion projects that White would direct through Bent Image Lab, including two children's television specials forHallmark Channel. In reviewing the 2011 television holiday programs, Mike Hale ofThe New York Times calledJingle All the Way (TV special) "By far the best of the bunch. In addition to its charming art and pleasantly low-key storytelling, 'Jingle' stands apart from the other holiday programs by not focusing on the manufacturing or delivery of toys."[42]
In 2006, Chel White directed themusic video forThom Yorke's songHarrowdown Hill (Best Music Video, 2007SXSW).[43] Along with his team and co-founders at Bent Image Lab, he pioneeredSmallgantics, a digital miniaturizing technique first used in theHarrowdown Hill video.[44] In 2012, White directed the video for theChrysta Bell &David Lynch songBird of Flames, which has been described as "a haunting and surreal vision."[45]
Thecommercials Chel White directed have been honored withClio Awards,[46] aD&AD Award,[47] aThe One Club Award,[48] twoAssociation of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Awards,[49][50] and two are included in the permanent collection of theMuseum of Modern Art in New York. His personal favorite ads he directed are for theWashington State Department of Health in a campaign of surreal anti-smoking public service announcements aimed at children.[51][52]
Chel White's composer credits includeJoan C. Gratz'sAcademy Award winning animated short filmMona Lisa Descending a Staircase,Joanna Priestley and Joan C. Gratz's animated shortPro and Con,Choreography for Copy Machine (as Citizen M), “A Bird Is Following Me” withTom Brosseau, and the feature filmBucksville. From 1981 to 1982, he was a member of the techno duo Process Blue (Dark Entries Records).[53] 2019 saw the release of "Automaton", a vinyl record of White's experimental and soundtrack music from between 1985 and 1991 (Platform 23 Recordings).[54] White's screenwriting credits includeBucksville (feature),Little Donnie (short), story development forJingle All the Way (TV special), and the story adaptation based on the originalRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for theSimEx-Iwerks 4D attraction film of the same title.[55] As an actor, Chel White had a role inEven Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), playing abrain surgeon in a scene withUma Thurman.[56]
Since 1985, Chel White has lived inPortland, Oregon.