William Farley

Made for Television

William Farley

A dense assemblage of excerpts from television commercials juxtaposed to a soundtack of extraordinary facts about human beings. MADE FOR TELEVISION presents a humorous and critical view of TV advertising manipulation.

In Between The Notes: A Portrait of Pandit Pran Nath

William Farley

Pandit Pran Nath, Terry Riley

This documentary celebrates the life of a devoted musician: Pandit Pran Nath. The last in a long line of north Indian vocal masters in the Kirana style of Indian classical music, we trace his journey from India, accompanied by his disciple, the avant-garde composer Terry Riley, in their search for purity of expression.

Become an Artist

Don Novello, William Farley

Don Novello

Satirizes television pitches, art schools, and the self-importance of artists.

Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish

William Farley

Jerry Barrish

Jerry Ross Barrish sees the beauty in—and creates the unexpected out of—discarded materials. The son of hard-working Jewish immigrants with crime-family connections, Barrish worked for 50 years as a bail bondsman, much of it for radical protesters. He stumbled into acclaim as a filmmaker, earning the Museum of Modern Art’s prestigious New Director distinction and winning major European awards along the way. Then one day, inspiration struck as he picked up plastic trash on a beach, leading him to launch a whole new career as a sculptor. Though acclaimed by curators, he long went virtually unnoticed in the commercial-art realm. But at age 75, the unassuming Barrish may finally be on the verge of success, as William Farley’s engaging documentary goes to show. Seeing the playfulness of his pieces, you’ll understand why: with artificial materials, he has managed to capture real life. -Denver Film Society

The Bell Rang to an Empty Sky

William Farley

This film has taken one of the many tragedies buried in American history which befell the American Indian and through the voice of Dennis Banks, creates a tight and perceptive visual and aural telling and interpretation of the events. The selection of images, their iconography and meaning, effectively explored through juxtaposition, creates a powerful work. (John Hanhardt, Curator of Film and Video, Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York, N.Y.)

Citizen

William Farley

Gillian Bagwell, Stoney Burke

A group of anonymous young people embark on an apparently random journey through a disjointed San Francisco cityscape. Along their travels they encounter a succession of madmen and eccentrics, portrayed by various West Coast performance artists, whose impassioned monologues and improvisations satirize the institutions of contemporary American society.