The world’s first generative documentary is a groundbreaking exploration of the life and work of visionary musician and artist Brian Eno, a film that’s different every time it’s shown.
Renowned filmmaker Gary Hustwit’s (Helvetica, Rams) new documentary employs revolutionary technology to explore Brian Eno’s career and creative strategies. Best known for co-founding Roxy Music, pioneering the genre of ambient music, and producing David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and dozens of others, Eno has also released over 40 solo and collaboration records.
In the first career-spanning documentary of the legendary and prolific artist and the world’s first generative feature film, Hustwit set out to decode Eno’s creative strategies and examine his lifelong search for the meaning of music. Hustwit and creative technologist Brendan Dawes developed custom generative software to sequence scenes, using Hustwit’s original interviews with Eno, extensive never-before-seen archive of unreleased footage, as well as an original score by Eno.
Each screening of Eno is unique, presenting different scenes, order, music, and meant to be experienced live. The generative and infinitely iterative quality of Eno poetically resonates with the artist’s own creative practice, his methods of using technology to compose music, and his endless deep dive into the mercurial essence of creativity.
For the Vancouver Premiere, Gary Hustwit will create a unique cut of the film live on-stage, and the version shown at VIFF Live will never be seen again. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Gary Hustwit and special guests.
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Gary Hustwit
Gary Hustwit is a filmmaker and visual artist based in New York. He has produced over 20 documentaries and film projects, including the award-winning I Am Trying To Break Your Heart about the band Wilco; Oddsac, an experimental feature film by the band Animal Collective; and Mavis!, the HBO documentary about gospel/soul music legend Mavis Staples. Gary worked with punk label SST Records in the late-1980s, releasing the music of bands like Black Flag, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr. He ran the independent book publishing house Incommunicado Press during the 1990s, and started the DVD label Plexifilm in 2001. With Plexifilm, Gary released over 40 films theatrically and on home video, including work by the Maysles brothers, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Andy Warhol and David Byrne.
In 2007 he made his directorial debut with Helvetica, the world’s first feature-length documentary about graphic design and typography. He has continued to explore how design affects our daily lives with his subsequent films Objectified (2009), Urbanized (2011), Workplace (2016), and Rams (2018). The films have been broadcast on PBS, BBC, HBO, Netflix and outlets in 20 countries, and have been screened in over 300 cities worldwide. He is currently working on Eno, a documentary about musician and artist Brian Eno, which uses generative technology in its creation and exhibition. Eno will be released in 2024.
Gary’s films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the South by Southwest Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival, among others. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Helvetica, and has served on the grand juries of the Sundance Film Festival, the IFP
Gotham Awards, and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Gary was named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. He is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Photo by Shamil Tanna
Brian Eno
Brian Eno – musician, producer, visual artist and activist first came to international prominence in the early seventies as a founding member of British band, Roxy Music, followed by a series of solo albums and collaborations. His work as producer includes albums with Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Laurie Anderson, James, Jane Siberry and Coldplay, while his long list of collaborations include recordings with David Bowie, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd, David Byrne, Grace Jones, his brother, Roger, on ‘Mixing Colours’ and recently with Fred Again…. Brian’s latest album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE was released to international critical acclaim in October 2022.
Eno’s visual experiments with light and video continue to parallel his musical career, with exhibitions and installations all over the globe. He has exhibited extensively, as far afield as St. Petersburg’s Marble Palace, Ritan Park in Beijing, Arcos de Lapa in Rio de Janeiro and the sails of the Sydney Opera House. He is a founding member of the Long Now Foundation, a trustee of Client Earth and patron of Videre est Credere. In April 2021, he launched EarthPercent, which raises money from the music industry for some of the most impactful environmental charities working on the climate emergency. In 2023, Brian was honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Biennale Musica.
Brian Eno will not be in attendance at this event
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