FRED BARNEY TAYLOR
MaestroMedia Productions
fredbarneytaylor@gmail.com

Fred Barney Taylor’s 30-year career has consisted of a combination of cultural interests, travel, filmmaking and teaching.

He has made films in North, Central and South America, Europe and Africa. He has developed and taught courses in small format video production in England (London and Edinburgh), and Mexico (Mexico City, Puebla, and Oaxaca).

Mr. Taylor has produced, directed and photographed six one-hour shows for Discovery Network’s Travel Channel. His films have appeared on Public Television and have been screened at festivals in North and Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe.

He has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State University, Grand Valley State Colleges, the School of Visual Arts, the New School and CUNY.

PRODUCED, WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED

2017 Lethem
A portrait of the life and work of Jonathan Lethem, the bestselling author of nine novels, including The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, and a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant”.
Theatrical Screenings at the Metrograph Theater, New York. Distributed by Grasshopper Films.

2009 The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman
Invited festival screenings in New York, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and London.
Screenings include Tribeca Film Festival, Metrograph Theater, New York Historical Society, Maysles Documentary Center, Schomburg Center For Black Research, the Strand Bookstore, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Library, Kelly Writers House (Philadelphia), Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).

2006 Atlantis
A multi-layered cinematic portrait of the power and beauty of New York City bridges. Shot in High-Definition for the HD Lab of Rainbow Media’s VOOM Channel. December 2006 broadcast premier.

2005 The Gates
A visual voyage through the landmark Central Park installation of Christo and Jean-Claude.

2002-2003 Las Vegas Exposed
Travel Channel, Discovery Network. Two 60-minute episode series on life in contemporary Las Vegas.

1999-2001 Great Writers/Great Cities
Travel Channel, Discovery Network. 4X60.
Portraits of major cities seen through the eyes of contemporary writers. Program episodes include Paco Taibo’s Mexico City, Iain Sinclair’s London, Carl Hiaasen’s Miami, and New York Underground, with Luc Sante, Samuel R. Delany, David Rieff, and Fran Liebowitz.

1998 Conversations with Myself
Color, sound, double screen, Super 8, variable speed and time. Optically printed footage of journeys through Central and South America. Previewed at Anthology Film Archives as part of its Film-maker’s Co-Optical series.

1995 Mondo Miami.
60 minutes. A surreal voyage through the hallucinatory landscape of America’s quintessential postmodern city. Co-produced with Tapestry Productions. Distributed by Tapestry International.

1989 The Architecture of Rhythm.
60 minutes. A cinematic meditation on gesture, ritual, and transfigured African influences in the New World. Shot on location in West Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Selected for the Distant Lives series co-produced by PBS and the Learning Channel, and broadcast nationally.

1982 Los Hijos de Sandino (The Children of Sandino)
16mm, 45 minutes. A lyrical treatment of Nicaraguan culture highlighted by the celebration of the first anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. Award winner at the Global Village Documentary Festival, New York City, 1983. Invited participant at festivals in Havana, Edinburgh, Milan, 1983; Mexico City, Montreal, 1982.

1982 Lives of the Artists
45 minutes. A celebration of the cultural and ethnic diversity of the city achieved through portraits of thirteen New York artists.

1973 The Structuralist Films of David Rimmer
16mm. 20 minutes. Optically manipulated time and space transform normally “banal” home movie images. Award winner at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1973, and the Midwest Film Festival, 1976.

OTHER FILMS

1997 Four Acts in Glass, Produced by the American Craft Museum, New York. A film detailing the sculptural installations of master glassmakers Dale Chihuly, William Morris, Pike Powers, and Bertil Vallien.

1997 The NMAI Today, produced by the National Museum of the American Indian, for the Smithsonian Institution

1995 CHECKPOINT 95, an interactive virtual satellite transmitted collaboration between New York, Moscow, and Linz, Austria commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. Aired locally on WNET.

1992 The Way of the People, produced by the National Museum of the American Indian, for the Smithsonian Institution.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1993-1999 Annual Visiting Professor, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. Design and teach Filmmaking in England and Scotland (on location) and Filmmaking in Mexico (on location.)

1988-1999 Senior Faculty Member, the School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York City. Senior production instructor and thesis advisor.

1990-1992 Associate Professor, City University of New York (Staten Island). Produced programming for community cable television station.

1980-1987 Faculty, the New School for Social Research, New York City. Senior video instructor at Global Village Study Center.

1982-1986 Founder and teacher of the New York International Media Group, an instructional workshop devoted to small format videography and filmmaking.

1976-1978 Professor, William James College, Grand Valley State Colleges, Allendale, Michigan.

EDUCATION

1977 Master of Fine Arts, Art Department, University of Wisconsin- Madison.

1976 Master of Arts, Communication Arts Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

1970 Bachelor of Science in Journalism, The Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.

AWARDS

The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman Awarded “Best Documentary Feature,” Philadelphia International GLFF.

Submitted for Emmy Nomination in both cinematography and writing for Carl Hiaasen’s Miami, part of the Great Cities/Great Writers series, 2001.

Nominated for Rockefeller Foundation Awards in Film and Video in 1998 and 1999.

Los Hijos de Sandino Award winner New York’s Global Village Documentary Festival.

The Structuralist Films of David Rimmer Award winner at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and the Midwest Film Festival