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30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025

Jon Jost

Jon JOST (1943, USA) grew up in Georgia, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. After being kicked out of university, he started making 16mm films. In 1965, Jost was imprisoned for two years as a draft dodger. After his release, he became politically active as a New Left Cinema director. He has made over 60 features and short films, for most of which he also takes credit as writer, cinematographer and editor. Since 1996, Jost has filmed exclusively on digital video. He has made films in different forms, largely focusing on specific American topics. One of his most widely known films, All the Vermeers in New York (1990), won the Caligari Film Award at Berlinale.

Filmography

Portrait (1963, short), Repetition (1963, short), Sunday (1963, short), Chalma (1964, short), City (1964, short), We Didn’t Go to Unique’s (1965, short), Judith (1965, short), Traps (1967, short), Leah (1967, short), 13 Fragments and 3 Narratives from Life (1969, short), Primaries (1969, short), A Turning Point in Lunatic China (1969, short), 1,2,3, Four (1969, short), Susannah’s Film (1969, short), Canyon (1970, short), Flower (1970, short), Canyon (1970, short), Fall Creek (1970, short), A Man Is More Than the Sum of His Parts/ A Woman Is (1971, short), Primaries/A Turning Point in Lunatic China/1,2,3, Four (1971, short), Speaking Directly (some American notes) (1973), Angel City (1976), Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Dead End) (1977), Beauty Sells Best (1978, short), Chameleon (1978), X2: Two Dances by Nancy Karp (1980), Godard 80 (1980, short), Stagefright (1981), Psalm (1982), Slow Moves (1983), Bell Diamond (1985), Plain Talk and Common Sense (Uncommon Senses) (1988), Rembrandt Laughing (1988), Sure Fire (1990), All the Vermeers in New York (1990), Frame Up (1993), The Bed You Sleep In (1993), Uno a te, uno a me, et uno a Raffaele/One for You, One for Me and One for Raphael (1994), Albrechts Flügel/Albrecht’s Wings (1994), London Brief (1997), Nas correntes de luz da ria formosa (1999), Muri Romani (1999), 6 Easy Pieces (1999), Dharma Do As Dharma Does (2000, short), Vera X 3 (2000, short), Watersong #1 (2000, short), Muri romani/Roman Walls (2000), Til Edvard (2001, short), Trinity (2002, short), Chhattisgarh Sketches (2003, doc), Oui non (2003), Homecoming (2004), Passages (2006), La lunga ombra/The Long Shadow (2006), Over Here (2008), Misteri bulkehan gurimja/Love in the Shadows (2008, co-dir), Parable (2008), AMTRAK (2009, short), Rant (2009), Swimming in Nebraska (2010), Dissonance (2011), Imagens de uma cidade perdida (2011), Stand (2012, short), Dead End (2012), The Narcissus Flowers of Katsura-Shima (2012), Coming to Terms (2013), They Had It Coming (2015), Blue Strait (2015)

Jon Jost at IFFR

  • 6 Easy Pieces

    Short digital video sketches that investigate the boundaries of this new medium. For instance, the interface with painting. Jost looks with his digita

    • main programme short

  • Muri Romani

    A film-maker stares blindly at the old and battered walls of Rome and thinks his own thoughts.

    • main programme short

  • La lunga ombra

    A psychological drama as political pamphlet. Very beautifully photographed. A beautiful Italian villa. A couple of very experienced actresses. Togethe

    • Kings & Aces

  • Passages

    An enchanting moving painting. Digital colour shifting like a palette knife in oily paint. For those who want to undergo a drugs high without chemical

    • White Light

  • Love in the Shadows

    Three love stories, and all three times these are rather strange loves. For instance, love with a shop window dummy. Two Korean film students made two

    • Spectrum

  • Over Here

    The film maker once refused to serve in Vietnam and ended up in jail. His anger about war has not grown any less over the years. In this oppressive po

    • Kings & Aces

  • Roma – un ritratto improvvisorio

    Provisional version of a planned 12-hour portrait of the city of Rome, by a film-maker who makes the best possible use of the unprecedented opportunit

    • main programme features

  • At Sea (Harbouring Thoughts: Adrift)

    Jost did not film in a specific port, but collected pictures from his personal archive. A meditation about travelling and staying home.

    • on the waterfront new films

  • Songs for Clara (work in progress)

    Two new video works that again demonstrate the virtuosity of Jon Jost. About light on the old walls of Rome and in the hair of his daughter.

    • main programme features

  • All the Vermeers in New York