William Farley is an American film director. He directed Whoopi Goldberg in her first screen role, in Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away (1981–1982).
William Farley | |
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| Alma mater | Maryland Institute College of Art |
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| Years active | 1970–present |
Biography
editWilliam Farley was raised in Braintree, Massachusetts, on Boston's south shore in a working-class family. His early life included training as a commercial artist and as a sculptor. Drafted by the U.S. Army, Farley worked as an illustrator for an intelligence unit.
Farley's first film was made in 1970. As a graduate student majoring in sculpture he took a class on the history of film. At the end of the semester, he had the choice to either write a paper about the films he saw or make a film. The film was a hit on the film festival circuit and Farley was hooked. When he received his MFA a year and a half later he had more credits in filmmaking than sculpture.
Career
editFarley's first feature film, Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away, made on maxed-out credit cards, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1983. The film is an anarchic look at society as a group of anonymous youths roam the San Francisco cityscape. Featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Citizen included, among other West Coast performance artists, playwright John O'Keefe and Whoopi Goldberg in her first screen performance.
Farley directed his second feature, Of Men and Angels, from a screenplay he co-wrote, starring Theresa Saldana and John Molloy of Dublin's Abbey Theatre. The film tells the story of three strong-willed individuals who struggle for control of their own dreams and each other's. In 1989, Of Men and Angels premiered in the dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
Farley's next film was broke, a meditation on street people and showed in over a dozen film festivals in the United States and Europe. In 1998, Mr. Farley's poignant short film Sea Space, completed in 1972, was blown up to 35mm and shown at the Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival and won first prize at the Mannheim Film Festival.
In the spring of 2001, he co-directed The Old Spaghetti Factory, a documentary film about the Old Spaghetti Factory, the last bohemian nightclub in San Francisco's North Beach. The film was shown on PBS in over one hundred U.S. cities. This film was a collaboration between Farley, Mal Sharpe, and Sandra Sharpe.
Farley's many short films and documentaries have won numerous awards and have been broadcast and screened at venues around the world, including the Sundance, Berlin, Chicago, Sydney, and New York film festivals.
Filmography (as director)
editFeature films
edit- Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away (1981–1982), 16mm[1]
- Of Men and Angels (1989)[2][3]
Documentaries
edit- Plastic Man, the Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish[4] (2014) premiered at Mill Valley Film Festival
- Shadow and Light: The life and Art of Elaine Badgley Arnoux (2011), about visual artist Elaine Badgley Arnoux
- John O'Keefe's Adaptation of Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself (2007)
- Arianna’s Journey: A Pilgrimage of Faith (2007)
- Darryl Henriques Is in Show Business (2006)
- The Old Spaghetti Factory (1999–2000)[5]
- In Between The Notes (1985–1986)
Short films
edit- The Stories (2005)
- broke (1995/ remastered 2004)
- Tribute (1986)
- Become an Artist (1982)
- Made for Television (1981)
- Marathain (1977-79/ remastered 2002)
- The Bell Rang to an Empty Sky (1976–77)
- Being (1974–75)
- Sea Space (1972/remastered 1997)
References
edit- ^ "Canyon Cinema : William Farley Frames Jerry Barrish in SF360". Canyon Cinema Connects. November 24, 2010.
- ^ Smith, Lory (1999). Party in a Box: The Story of the Sundance Film Festival. Gibbs Smith Publisher. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-87905-861-6.
- ^ Nowlan, Robert A.; Nowlan, Gwendolyn Wright (1991). The Films of the Eighties: A Complete, Qualitative Filmography to Over 3400 Feature-length English Language Films, Theatrical and Video-only, Released Between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 1989. McFarland & Company. p. 409. ISBN 978-0-89950-560-2.
- ^ "Jerry Ross Barrish". Cast & Crew. skylinecollege.edu. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- ^ "San Francisco Landmark #127: Old Spaghetti Factory". noehill.com. Retrieved 13 December 2021.