Mary Jordan (filmmaker)
Encyclopedia
Mary Jordan is an award winning filmmaker, artist, activist and social justice advocate based in New York City. She grew up in the Bronx and in Toronto, Canada. She studied literature, cultural and social anthropology and art.
She has lived in Australia, India, Thailand and Burma and traveled in more than 50 countries. At the age of 18, after a trip through North Africa, she made her first documentary film, a work about female circumcision. Jordan was especially interested in rites of passage and in matriarchal and polygamous societies, like in Papua New Guinea. At the age of 20 she was the producer of Canadian directors like Steve Chase and Marco Brambilla
. In Sydney, Australia she founded the production firm Indigo Blue for music videos and commercials.
Since 2005 she is mainly living and working in New York. In 2005 she had already been acclaimed by the magazine Filmmaker as one of the 25 ‘new faces of independent film-making’. The same year, in the Old Chelsea Y.M.C.A. in New York she held an exhibition about Jack Smith, including films, photographs and radio-broadcasts of his as well as interviews with his friends. In New York she set up a performance art troupe called Parthenogenesis who performed in venues from CBGB
's, the Box, Canal Room
and to many under ground theatres and lofts. She directed 42 different performances with the troupe.
,
produced by the American artist Richard Prince
, was named one of the top ten A-list movies of 2007 by Entertainment Weekly
.
Exhibited worldwide, it received the Tribeca Film Festival
Jury Award
, the Best Documentary Award from the Torino International Film Festival
, the Jury Award for the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film
and the Jury Award for Extraordinary Documentary Film Talent. Noted for its boundary-breaking aesthetic, it was exhibited at the Venice Biennial, Haus der Kulturen der Welt
in Berlin, Brisbane Powerhouse, ISSUE Project Room
,
and Nuit Blanche
in Paris, and has been utilized by film schools around the globe, including NYU and the New School. Filmmaker Magazine named Jordan one of the top 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2005
The recipient of grants from Judith Rothschild, the Agnes Gund
Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Frameline, Jordan was also one of the first artists to be invited to perform in Performa, the highly acclaimed Performance Art Biennial in New York City run by Roselee Goldberg
.
Mary Jordan was featured in Nathan Shedroff’s book Experience Design first published by New Riders and now Experience Design Books. Shedroff is an experience strategist and has designed experiences in a variety of media, especially interactive and information design and branding. In his book he lists 100 great design experiences including Mary Jordan’s performance series, The Burmese Tea Ceremony.
Mary Jordan is currently making a feature length art film on the performance group the Angels of Light from San Francisco. A film to made for free and given for free to the public.
, a non-profit international arts organization dedicated to combining art and cultural programming with social advocacy based in New York City. Her newest venture, ‘The Water Tank Project,’ (www.thewatertankproject.org) utilizes New York City’s iconic water tanks for a large-scale public artwork that will draw attention to the global water crisis. In 2011 the Ford Foundation awarded Word Above the Street a grant to develop the Water Tank Project
. In May 2011 Jordan spoke about The Water Tank Project at the Festival of Ideas.
, Los Angeles Film Festival
, Seattle International Film Festival
, Copenhagen International Film Festival
, Sydney Film Festival
, Pacific Film & Television Commission. Her work has been theatrically released and exhibited at Film Forum in New York City, on the Sundance Channel, and on multiple network stations. Her own background as a painter, artist, and performance artist, meanwhile, has caused her selection as director of upcoming features on artists Ed Ruscha.
(Doctors Without Borders) in the refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border,
with the Millenium Foundation, the International Center for Human Rights and Tolerance Education in NYC, and was chosen by the Children’s Movement Organization to direct their feature documentary on the war torn children of Bosnia.
— New York : States of Mind. Berlin, Germany. 2007
Brisbane Powerhouse - Brisbane, Australia, June 1–7, 2007
Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona - Bareclona, Spain. March 2007
Nuit Blanche
- Paris, France. October 2008
Galerie Daniel Buchholz – Cologne, Germany. August 2008
ISSUE Project Room - Brooklyn, NY. April 2009
Louis K Meisel Gallery, installation art group show - New York City, USA. September 17, 2006
Documentai— Santa Monica, CA. April 2009
Salon des Amateurs, Collaboration with local Kunsthalle and Independent BlackBox Cinema - Duesseldorf, Germany
Engine Collision Festival – Los Angeles, USA. March 2, 2009
She has lived in Australia, India, Thailand and Burma and traveled in more than 50 countries. At the age of 18, after a trip through North Africa, she made her first documentary film, a work about female circumcision. Jordan was especially interested in rites of passage and in matriarchal and polygamous societies, like in Papua New Guinea. At the age of 20 she was the producer of Canadian directors like Steve Chase and Marco Brambilla
Marco Brambilla
Marco Brambilla is an Italian-born Canadian artist and filmmaker who works in the United States. Educated at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, where he studied film, he first worked in commercials and feature films, directing the successful 1993 science fiction film Demolition Man...
. In Sydney, Australia she founded the production firm Indigo Blue for music videos and commercials.
Since 2005 she is mainly living and working in New York. In 2005 she had already been acclaimed by the magazine Filmmaker as one of the 25 ‘new faces of independent film-making’. The same year, in the Old Chelsea Y.M.C.A. in New York she held an exhibition about Jack Smith, including films, photographs and radio-broadcasts of his as well as interviews with his friends. In New York she set up a performance art troupe called Parthenogenesis who performed in venues from CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
's, the Box, Canal Room
Canal Room
Canal Room is a music venue located at 285 West Broadway between Canal Street and Lispenard Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The space was formerly known as "Shine". It underwent a $1 million renovation in 2003 by owner Marcus Linial, a former J Records star...
and to many under ground theatres and lofts. She directed 42 different performances with the troupe.
Filmmaker
Mary Jordan’s first feature length film, Jack Smith and the Destruction of AtlantisJack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis is a documentary film that premiered in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. It is a collection of interviews and clips by and about the revolutionary artist Jack Smith...
,
produced by the American artist Richard Prince
Richard Prince
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...
, was named one of the top ten A-list movies of 2007 by Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.
Exhibited worldwide, it received the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
Jury Award
, the Best Documentary Award from the Torino International Film Festival
, the Jury Award for the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film
International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film
The International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film , also known as the Leipzig DOK Festival, is a film festival that takes place annually in Leipzig, Germany. It was founded in 1955 under the name "1st All-German Leipzig Festival of Cultural and Documentary Films" and was the...
and the Jury Award for Extraordinary Documentary Film Talent. Noted for its boundary-breaking aesthetic, it was exhibited at the Venice Biennial, Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin is Germany's national centre for contemporary non-European art. It presents art exhibitions, theater and dance performances, concerts, author readings, films and academic conferences on non-European Visual Art and culture...
in Berlin, Brisbane Powerhouse, ISSUE Project Room
ISSUE Project Room
The ISSUE Project Room is a music venue in Brooklyn, New York founded in 2003 by Suzanne Fiol. Located in The Old American Can Factory in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, the venue supports a wide variety of contemporary performance, specializing in presenting experimental and avant-garde music...
,
and Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival. A Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for...
in Paris, and has been utilized by film schools around the globe, including NYU and the New School. Filmmaker Magazine named Jordan one of the top 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2005
The recipient of grants from Judith Rothschild, the Agnes Gund
Agnes Gund
Agnes Gund , is an American philanthropist, art patron and collector, and advocate for arts education. She is founding trustee of the Agnes Gund Foundation and President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and Chairman of its International Council. She is also Chairman of MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art...
Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Frameline, Jordan was also one of the first artists to be invited to perform in Performa, the highly acclaimed Performance Art Biennial in New York City run by Roselee Goldberg
Roselee Goldberg
RoseLee Goldberg is an American-based art historian, author, critic and curator. She wrote a study of performance art, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present...
.
Mary Jordan was featured in Nathan Shedroff’s book Experience Design first published by New Riders and now Experience Design Books. Shedroff is an experience strategist and has designed experiences in a variety of media, especially interactive and information design and branding. In his book he lists 100 great design experiences including Mary Jordan’s performance series, The Burmese Tea Ceremony.
Mary Jordan is currently making a feature length art film on the performance group the Angels of Light from San Francisco. A film to made for free and given for free to the public.
Public art projects
In 2010 she Founded and became the Creative Director of Word Above the Street, a non-profit international arts organization dedicated to combining art and cultural programming with social advocacy based in New York City. Her newest venture, ‘The Water Tank Project,’ (www.thewatertankproject.org) utilizes New York City’s iconic water tanks for a large-scale public artwork that will draw attention to the global water crisis. In 2011 the Ford Foundation awarded Word Above the Street a grant to develop the Water Tank Project
. In May 2011 Jordan spoke about The Water Tank Project at the Festival of Ideas.
Film Festivals participation
She has exhibited her film work at festivals including BFI London Film Festival, International Film Festival RotterdamInternational Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
, Los Angeles Film Festival
Los Angeles Film Festival
The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...
, Seattle International Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
The Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
, Copenhagen International Film Festival
Copenhagen International Film Festival
Copenhagen International Film Festival is a film festival held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was first held in 2003, and is held annually. The main award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival is the Golden Swan, which will be awarded for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best...
, Sydney Film Festival
Sydney Film Festival
The Sydney Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the Australian city of Sydney and is held over 12 days in June. The competitive film festival draws international and local attention, with films being showcased in several venues across the city centre and includes features,...
, Pacific Film & Television Commission. Her work has been theatrically released and exhibited at Film Forum in New York City, on the Sundance Channel, and on multiple network stations. Her own background as a painter, artist, and performance artist, meanwhile, has caused her selection as director of upcoming features on artists Ed Ruscha.
Human rights documentaries
A tireless champion of human rights, Jordan has also produced award-winning documentary work in Burma, Africa, Indonesia, and India. She has worked with Médecins Sans FrontièresMédecins Sans Frontières
' , or Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland...
(Doctors Without Borders) in the refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border,
with the Millenium Foundation, the International Center for Human Rights and Tolerance Education in NYC, and was chosen by the Children’s Movement Organization to direct their feature documentary on the war torn children of Bosnia.
Other festivals
LONDON Film Festival, BFI (British Film Institute), International Film Festival ROTTERDAM, LOS ANGELES Film Festival, SEATTLE International Film Festival, SYDNEY International Film Festival, PACIFIC Film & TELEVISION COMISSION, AVANTO & THE FINNISH Film ARCHIVE, BRISBANE International Film Festival, Festival DU NOUVEAU CINEMA, LEEDS International Film Festival, PROVINCETOWN International Film Festival, MIAMI GAY & LESBIAN Film Festival, MILWAUKEE LGBT Film Festival, PHILADELPHIA International GAY & LESBIAN Film Festival, FLAHERTY International Film Festival, COPENHAGEN International DOCUMENTARY Film Festival.Art work display
Haus der Kulturen der WeltHaus der Kulturen der Welt
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin is Germany's national centre for contemporary non-European art. It presents art exhibitions, theater and dance performances, concerts, author readings, films and academic conferences on non-European Visual Art and culture...
— New York : States of Mind. Berlin, Germany. 2007
Brisbane Powerhouse - Brisbane, Australia, June 1–7, 2007
Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona - Bareclona, Spain. March 2007
Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche
Nuit Blanche is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival. A Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for...
- Paris, France. October 2008
Galerie Daniel Buchholz – Cologne, Germany. August 2008
ISSUE Project Room - Brooklyn, NY. April 2009
Louis K Meisel Gallery, installation art group show - New York City, USA. September 17, 2006
Documentai— Santa Monica, CA. April 2009
Salon des Amateurs, Collaboration with local Kunsthalle and Independent BlackBox Cinema - Duesseldorf, Germany
Engine Collision Festival – Los Angeles, USA. March 2, 2009