jeff daniel silva
| curricula vitae
Print CV (PDF)
Education
MFA Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT, 2007
B. S. Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, 1996 | Cinema, Photography & Anthropology
Awards and fellowships
2009 Basil Wright Film Prize RAI Film Festival for “Balkan Rhapsodies”
2009 LEF Foundation Production Grant supporting “Ivan & Ivana: Variations on Amerika”
2009 Massachusetts Cultural Council, Fellowship in Media Arts
2009 Flaherty Seminar, Flaherty LEF Fellowship
2009 Harvard University Bok Center Distinction of Excellence in Teaching Award
2009 Boston Public Library, February Filmmaker-in-Residence
2008 Harvard University Bok Center Distinction of Excellence in Teaching Award
2008 LEF Foundation Production Grant supporting “Ivan & Ivana: Variations on Amerika”
2008 Best Documentary Festival Cinemateca Uruguaya, Montevideo, Uruguay
2008 Nominee Harvard University Levenson Teaching Prize
2007 Film Study Center Fellow at Harvard University
2005 MIT Council for the Arts fellowship support for “Balkan Rhapsodies” documentary
2004 Boston Phoenix “Best of 2004” for Balagan Film Series
2004 Distinguished for Cinematography, Napoidanza Festival, Italy (ARCUS)
2003 Somerville Arts Council Grant (Artist Fellowship Grant)
2002 Boston Film Critics Society “Best film series of the year” for Balagan
2002 Somerville Arts Council Grant (Video installation Arcus)
2002 Brookline Council for the Arts Grant (Balagan Experimental Film & Video Series)
2002 LEF Foundation Grant (Balagan Experimental Film & Video Series)
2001 Boston Film Critics Society “Best film series of the year” for Balagan
2001 MIT Excellence Award for “Leading Change”
2001 First Night Boston Grant (Interactive performances with live video)
2000 Somerville Arts Council Grant (16mm film Ebbing)
2000 Instructor appreciation award CCTV
Professional career
Full-Time Professor of Film & Animation, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2008-Present)
Partial Course List:
○ Advanced 16mm Filmmaking: Cinematic Strategies (Film 3)
○ Introduction to Filmmaking: Vision & Construction (Film 1)
○ Acting & Directing
○ Critical Screenings: Cinema and the Senses
○ Sound & Image (Film 2)
○ Directed Studies
○ Editing & Post-Production Strategies
Teaching Fellow, Visual & Environmental Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (Grad & Undergrad instruction)
Partial Course List:
○ Living Documentary with Lucien Taylor VES58 (2006 – Current)
○ Image/Sound/Culture with Lucien Taylor VES158 (2006 – Current)
○ Technology, Technique, Techné with Lucien Taylor VES161 (2008)
○ Critical Cinema: A History of Avant-Garde Film with Scott MacDonald VES177e (2007)
○ Facing Reality: A History of Documentary Film with Scott MacDonald VES176n (2007)
Instructor, Sensory Ethnography Lab, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2006 – Current)
Co-Founder & Film Programer, Balagan Experimental Film & Video Series, (2000-present)
Selected Programming Series and Highlights:
○ Food For Thought
○ Director’s Eye: with guest Filmmaker Peter Kubelka
○ Choreographing Cinema Series
○ Director’s Eye: with guest Filmmaker Richard Leacock
○ AFTER-math-shock-thoughts
○ Film as a Subversive Art Series
○ Director’s Eye: with guest Filmmaker Craig Baldwin
○ Director’s Eye: with guest Filmmaker Deborah Stratman
Adjunct Professor, Department of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College, Boston, MA (2006 – 2009)
Partial Course List:
○ Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking (Film 1)
○ Documentary History and Theory (Graduate & Undergraduate level)
○ “Other” Cinema: Exploring Cultural Representation through Non-Fiction film
○ Graduate Student Committee Thesis Advisor
○ Artist Teacher, MFA thesis advisor, Maine Media College (2008-2009)
○ Artist Mentor, MFA thesis advisor, The Art Institute of Boston (2007-2008)
○ Producer & Multi-Media Manager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1998-2006)
○ Freelance Video Producer, Cinematographer, & Editor (1996-2008)
○ Adjunct Professor, Ex College, Tufts University (2003)
○ Graduate Student Advisor, Lesley University (2003-2006)
○ Instructor, Boston Film & Video Foundation, BFVF (1998-2002)
○ Instructor, Cambridge Community Television, CCTV (1998-2003)
Films, videos and moving-image installation projects (selected)
○ Ivan & Ivana (2011)
○ Second Sight/Split Seconds (2010)
○ Footnotes of a Diurnal Course #7 (2009)
○ Epic Measures: Close Encounters of Another Kind (2009)
○ Silent Soliloquies (2009)
○ Nine Down Beats: Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is (2009)
○ Sweet Refrain (2009)
○ Anthem Anathema (2009)
○ Sounding the Plum Line (2009)
○ Shiptar Boys (2009)
○ Striking Notes and Chords (2009)
○ Voiced Recognitions (2009)
○ Singing Beach (2009)
○ Balkan Rhapsodies: 78 Measures of War (2008)
○ Chilangolandia: Capital in Movement (2007)
○ Vanishing Project with Nadya Nilina (2006)
○ Ashes, Ashes… (2005)
○ Dressed to Kill (2003/4)
○ Line-North Adams, collaboration With Wendy Jacobs (2006)
○ Line-Cambridge, collaboration With Wendy Jacobs (2005)
○ Classes, Masses, Crowds: Representing the Collective Body & the Myth of Direct Knowledge (2005)
○ Movement (R)evolution: Exploring New Trends in Contemporary African Dance (2005)
○ Arcus, Collaboration with Alla Kovgan (2004)
○ Ebbing, Collaboration with Nicola Hawkins (2000)
○ Ojos Viajeros (1998)
Selected screenings, exhibits & performances
○ Independent Film Festival Boston (April 2011)
○ Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland (April 2011)
○ Anthology Film Archives, Flaherty NYC (February 2010)
○ American Anthropological Association (AAA) PA (December 2009)
○ Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival (RAI) UK (July 2009)
○ Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY, NY (February 2008)
○ Solo Exhibition Brownlee O. Currey, Jr. Gallery, Nashville, TN (March 6-26, 2009)
○ Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA (October 2008)
○ Cornell Cinema, Ithaca, NY (November 2008)
○ XVII International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade, Serbia (November 2008)
○ Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Göttingen, Germany (2008)
○ Best Documentary – Festival Cinemateca Uruguaya, Montevideo, Uruguay (March 2008)
○ DocHouse Brussels, Belgium (December 2007)
○ ForumDocBH, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (December 2007)
○ Valdivia International Film festival, Chile (October 2007)
○ DokumentART Festival, Neubrandenburg, Germany (September 2007)
○ Cinedans Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (July 2007)
○ Anthology Film Archive (May 2007)
○ Harvard Film Archive “For Life Against the War” program (March 2007)
○ Mexico City, Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo (February 2007)
○ Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theatre (January 2007)
○ BAC! 05 Barcelona Contemporary Art Festival, Spain (December 2005)
○ Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR (August 2005)
○ Independent Film Festival of Boston (April 2005)
○ Athens International Film Festival, Athens, OH (August 2005)
○ Indonesia Dance on Camera Festival (December 2004)
○ Betty Rymer Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago (2004)
○ Dance Camera West, Cal Arts (June 2004)
○ Liquid Bodies Moving Image Festival, Toronto, CA (2004)
○ Paris, France Anthology Film Archives Festival of American Artists (March 2003)
○ Greek International Film Festival (2003)
○ BAC! 03 Barcelona Contemporary Art Festival, Spain (2003)
○ Napolidanza Festival April 2003)
○ Walter Reade Theatre, Dance on camera Festival NY, NY (2003)
○ St. Petersburg, Russia (December 2001)
○ New England Film & Video Festival (2001)
○ Low-Fi Video Festival, Belgrade, Yugoslavia (2000)
○ Guadalajara, Mexico Chroma Festival (2000)
○ Bar Harbor Film Festival, Maine (1999)
○ Tremont Theatre, With Musicians: Hrvatski, Peter Kovald, Laurence Cook, & Daniel Carter, Boston, MA (February 2001)
○ Galapagos Art and Performance Space, With Musicians: Daniel Carter, The Gold Sparkle Band, and Saturnalia String trio, Brooklyn, NY (May 2000)
○ Pink Pony, With Musicians: Daniel Carter, & Saturnalia String Trio, NYC (May 2000)
○ Bad Girrls Studios, With Musicians: Daniel Carter, William Parker, and The Gold Sparkle Band, Jamaica Plain, MA (Dec 1998, Nov 1999)
Professional associations & memberships
○ Co-Founder/Programmer, Art, Anthropology, & Aesthetics Workshop at Harvard University (2009-present)
○ Co-Founder/Programmer, Balagan Experimental Film & Video Series (2000-present)
○ Member, Documentary Educational Resources (DER), Watertown, MA (2007-present)
○ Member, Filmmakers Collaborative, Waltham, MA (2001-2008)
○ Member, Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers, AIVF (1995-2006)
○ Co-Founder, Pixonik Labs Artist Collective (1999-2001)
○ Co-Founder, Collateral Damage Arts & Politics Collaborative (1999-present)
Conferences, lectures, papers and panels
○ Presenter, Spotlight on Documentary, Independent Film Week, New York, New York (September 2010)
○ Guest Artist/Presenter, American Anthropology Association (AAA) (December 2009)
○ Artist talk, Watkins College of Art, Nashville, TN (March 2009)
○ Artist talk, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (November 2008)
○ Artist talk, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY (November 2008)
○ Artist talk, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY (July 2008)
○ Artist talk, DocHouse Brusels: Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Belgium (December 2007)
○ Artist talk, “The Aesthetics of Ambiguity and the Empowered Eye”, Beyond Text Conference, Royal Anthropological Institute, Manchester, UK (June 2007)
○ Visiting Artist Film III class, School of the Museum of Fine Arts (January 2007)
○ Visiting Artist, School of the Museum of Fine Arts (October 2006)
○ Participant, “Robert Flaherty film Seminar” (2002-2009)
○ Lecturer, “Video Podcasting” MIT Tech Partners Conference, MIT (June 1, 2006)
○ Lecturer, “Contemporary Alternative Cinema”, MIT (January 2005)
○ Guest Presenter & Panelist, “Mashup Forum”, Somerville, MA (July 14, 2005)
○ Panelist, “Film Distribution and the Microcinema Movement”, School of the Museum of Fine Arts (March 2004)
○ Presenter & Programmer, “Special program for the Boston Jewish Film Festival”, Coolidge Corner Theatre (November 2004)
○ Presenter & Programmer, “Digital Shorts”, Association of Moving Image Archivist (AMIA) (November 2003)
○ Presenter & Programmer, “Spaces & Places”, Somerville Theatre (July 2003)
○ Presenter & Programmer, “Filmmaker Open Studios”, Coolidge Corner Theatre (April 2003)
○ Presenter & Programmer, “Food 4 Thought: Cinematic obsession w/ Food”, Somerville Theatre (July 2002)
○ Presenter & Programmer, “Filmmaker Open Studios”, Coolidge Corner Theatre (April 2002)
○ Panelist, “Film Programming”, Oni Gallery (February 2002)
○ Presenter & Programmer, “Experiments in Form”, Boston Underground Film Festival (February 2001)
○ Team member & Contributor, Digital Directions project, NAMAC (April –June 2000)
○ Panelist, “Going Digital” Alliance, Community Media Conference (ACMC), Boston, MA (March 2000)
Juror
○ Rhode Island Council for the Arts Grant awards (2009)
○ DokumentArt Film Festival, Germany (2008)
○ Somerville Arts Council LCC Grant awards (2007)
○ SMFA Film Festival (2006)
○ Somerville Arts Council LCC Grant awards (2005)
○ Black Maria Film Festival pre-screen judge
○ Somerville Arts Council LCC Grant awards (2003)
Countries traveled
Belgium, Belize, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, United States
Languages
English and Spanish