Here, There & Around - Short Films of Bill Basquin

“Here, there and around,”

A special program of Bill Basquin’s short films from the last two decades

“Bill's work is intimate, personal and probing. There is a corporeal relationship with the camera that begins with a question, like a traditional interview or a casual dialogue. This temporary or rather “seasonal” interaction with characters and landscapes, triggers a hypothetical proposal about human behavior, masculinity and vastness, in relation to the nature that surrounds it. With his camera, Bill transgresses the observation space to turn it into a performative one in which his presence becomes evident.”

“El trabajo de Bill es íntimo, personal e inquisitivo. Hay una relación corpórea con la cámara que se inicia con una pregunta, como una entrevista tradicional o un diálogo casual. Esta interacción pasajera o de “temporada”, con personajes y paisajes, gatilla una propuesta hipotética sobre el comportamiento humano, la masculinidad y la inmensidad, en relación con la naturaleza que le rodea. Con su cámara, Bill transgrede el espacio de observación para convertirlo en uno performativo en el que se hace evidente su presencia.”

Anto Astudillo (Program Curator)

Bill Basquin Bio

Composting, gardening and light construction are important sites for Basquin of thinking through his aesthetic and material concerns. Basquin dry-farms a one acre apple orchard and is certified as a wildland firefighter in relation to his work with prescription fire.

Basquin’s films have shown at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah; Documenta in Kassel, Germany; and the Lab in San Francisco, California. Basquin’s feature-length film From Inside of Here had its World Premiere last week at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and its New York Premiere this week at the Museum of Modern Art.

Basquin was born in Indiana, and lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.