Jon Jost

Jon Stephen Jost (born 16 May 1943) is an American independent filmmaker from Chicago.

Born in Chicago to a military family, Jost grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expelled from college.

In 1965 he was imprisoned by US authorities for 2 years and 3 months for refusing to cooperate with the Selective Service System. On his release, he engaged in anti-war activities primarily by working for the draft resistance, Chicago Mobilization, and helped found the Chicago branch of Newsreel, the New Left Film production and distribution group.

Career

A self-taught filmmaker, Jost made his first full-length film in 1974. He has made forty long-form films focused on a wide range of American issues. Jost's work has been screened at major film festivals around the world. The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, screened a complete retrospective of his work from January 18 to February 19, 1991. This program was repeated at the UCLA Film Archive, Los Angeles, (March–April), and partially repeated at the American Film Institute Film Theater at the J.F. Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, (February), the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco under the sponsorship of the Film Arts Foundation and San Francisco Film Society, (March–April), and the Harvard Film Archive, Boston, (April). In October, 1991, the Viennale, in Vienna, Austria, in the context of a broader festival, screened a complete retrospective of Jost's films. It was also screened in January–February 1992 at the Arsenal Kino, Berlin.

In 1994 the Bergamo Film Meeting, Italy, organised a complete retrospective of all features and short films, and published a book and catalog on Mr. Jost and his work. A traveling retrospective was done in the Netherlands by the Filmtheater Desmet in fall 1994; and in December 1994 a complete retrospective was done at the Cinemateca in Bologna, Italy, and in Feb 1995 it was repeated at the Film Museo Nazionale, in Torino. Full retrospectives were mounted in 1996 at the Cinemateca Portuguese and Filmoteca Espanol. In 2011 the Jerusalem Cinematheque did an 11 film partial retrospective, also shown in Haifa and Tel Aviv.

Since 1996 he has worked almost exclusively in digital video (DV & HD), completing twenty-six features and many short films in electronic formats. Two of his most widely known films are All the Vermeers in New York (1990) and The Bed You Sleep In (1993). His 1977 feature, Last Chants for a Slow Dance is listed in the book 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die.

Jost also works in photography and painting, and writes and plays country western songs.

Personal life

After living and teaching in Seoul for 4 years, Jost resigned as a "Distinguished Professor" from Yonsei University, in June 2011, and resumed full-time filmmaking. Jost is presently living in Butte, Montana (2020).

Filmography

Feature length films Speaking Directly (1973) Angel City (1976) Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977) Chameleon (16 to 35 mm) (1978) Stagefright (1981) Nightshift (1981) Slow Moves (1983) Bell Diamond (1986) Plain Talk & Common Sense (1987) Rembrandt Laughing (1988) Sure Fire (super16 to 35 mm) (1990) All the Vermeers in New York (35 mm) (1990) Frameup (35 mm) (1993) The Bed You Sleep In (35 mm) (1993) Uno a me, uno a te e uno a Raffaele (35 mm) (1994) London Brief (DV) (1997) Nas Correntes de Luz da Ria Formosa (DV) (1999) 6 Easy Pieces (DV) (2000) Roma - un ritratto improvvisario (DV) (2000) Muri romani (DV) (2000) Oui Non (DV) (2002) Vergessensfuge (DV) (2004) Homecoming (DV) (2004) Chhattisgarh Sketches (DV) (2004) Passages (DV) (2004) La Lunga Ombra (DV) (2005) Over Here (DV) (2007) Parable (DV) (2008) Rant (DV) (2008) Swimming in Nebraska (DV) (2010) Imagens de uma cidade perdida (DV) 2011 Dissonance (DV/HD) 2011 Trinity (DV/HD) 2011 The Narcissus Flowers of Katsura-shima (HD) 2012 Coming to Terms (HD) 2013 Canyon (HD) 2013 Bowman Lake (HD) 2014 They Had It Coming (HD) 2015 Blue Strait (HD) 2015 Again & Again (HD) (with Marcella Di Palo) 2012-2018 Muri Romani II (HD) 2018 Pequenos Milagres (HD) 2019 Tourists (HD) 2020 Deadendz, 68 min, 2012-2023 Casa do silencio (HD) 2024

Short films Portrait, 1963 Repetition, 1963 Chalma, 1964 Sunday, 1964 City, 1964 We Didn't Go to Unique's, 1965 Judith, 1965 Leah, 1967 Traps, 1967 13 Fragments & 3 Narratives from Life, 1968 Susannah's Film, 1969 Flower, 1970 Canyon, 1970 Fall Creek, 1970 A Man Is More Than The Sum of His Parts/A Woman Is, 1971 Primaries/A Turning Point in Lunatic China/1, 2, 3 Four, 1971 X2: Two Dances by Nancy Karp, 1980 Beauty Sells Best, 1978 Godard 80, 1980 Water Song #1, 1998 Adrift, 2001 Til Edvard, 2001 Vera x 3, 2001 Dharma Does As Dharma Do, 2001 Water Song #2, 2001 Fugue, 2002 FUNKIES - 10 Electronic Paintings, 2003 Tanti Auguri, 2002 A Walk Through Waseda Garden, 2004 A View of Mount Baker from Port Angeles, Wa. [For Hokusai], 2004 San Lorenzo, 2006, 12 mins, Italy Mr Right, 2009, 30 mins, Seoul S Korea AMTRAK, 2009, 27 mins, USA Canyon, 2013, 24 mins, USA (short version) Stand, 2016, 30 mins, USA Mountains As Mountains Landscape for Watanabe Shiko, 13 mins USA 2017 Requiem, 13:30, USA 2018 30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing (segment "Jon Jost"), 1:50, USA 2020 On the Strait, 6:40, USA 2020 Walking the Dogs, 1.40, USA 2020 Spectral Passage, 6:30, USA 2020 Luminous Landscape, 6:40, USA 2020 July 4, 3:10, USA 2020 And a butterfly, 2:50, USA 2020 I have a friend who hates windchimes, 1:05 USA 2020 Red Frame, 4:03, USA 2020 Veils, 10:30, USA 2020 Brambles, 4:45, USA 2020 The Field, (A Dance),2:38 USA 2020 The Symphony, 2:02, USA 2020 Punta Secca, 9:05, ITALY 2020 My Life as a Midge, 6:28, USA 2020