Michael Snow

Biography

Michael Snow was considered one of Canada's most important artists, and one of the world's leading experimental filmmakers. His wide-ranging and multidisciplinary oeuvre explored the possibilities inherent in different mediums and genres, and encompassed film and video, painting, sculpture, photography, writing, and music. Snow's practice comprised a thorough investigation into the nature of perception. While Snow early established himself as a successful painter and musician in his native Toronto, it was his 1962 move to New York City that marked the beginning of his rise to international prominence. He entered into a long-lasting and fruitful dialogue with downtown Manhattan's artistic avant garde, exchanging ideas with figures such as Yvonne Rainer, Philip Glass, Sol LeWitt, and Richard Foreman, and developing of some of his most ambitious and influential works to date. His 1964 film New York Eye and Ear Control documents his growing involvement with the burgeoning free jazz movement, and the soundtrack boasts a lineup that includes Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, and Sonny Murray. Snow would continue to pursue improvised music, both on his own and in ensembles such as Toronto's CCMC…

Directed

1. Wavelength (1967) — Director
2. La Région Centrale (1971) — Director
3. So Is This (1982) — Director
4. *Corpus Callosum (2002) — Director
5. Breakfast (Table-Top Dolly) (1976) — Director
6. Back and Forth (1969) — Director
7. Sshtoorrty (2005) — Director
8. ‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (1974) — Director
9. One Second in Montreal (1969) — Director
10. Presents (1981) — Director
11. New York Eye and Ear Control (1964) — Director
12. To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (1991) — Director
13. Prelude (2000) — Director
14. WVLNT (2003) — Director
15. Cityscape (2019) — Director
16. Dripping Water (1969) — Director
17. See You Later (1990) — Director
18. Standard Time (1967) — Director
19. A to Z (1956) — Director
20. The Living Room (2001) — Director
21. Two Sides to Every Story (1974) — Director
22. Seated Figures (1988) — Director
23. Side Seat Paintings Slides Sound Film (1970) — Director
24. Solar Breath (2002) — Director
25. Short Shave (1965) — Director
26. For Life, Against the War (1967) — Director
27. Reverberlin (2006) — Director
28. A Casing Shelved (1970) — Director
29. Preludes (2000) — Director
30. Little Walk (1964) — Director
31. Puccini Conservato (2009) — Director
32. Triage (2004) — Director
33. Waivelength (2019) — Director
34. Funnel Piano (1983) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Hapax Legomena I: (nostalgia) (1971) — Narrator
2. Diaries, Notes, and Sketches (1968) — Self
3. Manual of Arms (1966)
4. Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2011) — Himself
5. ‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (1974) — The Whistler / The Trumpeter / Man at the Table / ... (voice)
6. Cinématon (1978) — N°44
7. Snowblind (1968)
8. Grand Opera: An Historical Romance (1979) — Wilma Schoen
9. Dream Life (1972) — Man walking in the street (uncredited)
10. I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1987)
11. Birth of a Nation (1997) — Self
12. Toronto Jazz (1963) — Himself
13. Michael Snow Up Close (1996) — Himself
14. Short Shave (1965)
15. Seminar (1969) — Self
16. Home Movies 1971-81 (1985)
17. Michael Snow Portrait (2011)
18. L’œil omnidirectionnel de Michael Snow (2019) — Himself
19. Snow Business (1983) — Himself
20. Portrait of Snow (2016) — Himself
21. Snow In Vienna (2013) — Himself - Composer
22. Bill's Hat (1967)
23. A Lecture (1968) — Narrator
24. The Stone Age (1970) — Aristotle
25. Cinématon V (1979) — N°44
26. EXPRMNTL (2016) — Himself
27. Cinématon n°44 : Michael Snow (1979)
28. Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman (2011)