Directory Profile

Pablo Frasconi studied with experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, filmmaker & historian Jay Leyda, and the father of Canadian film studies, Peter Harcourt. His first full-length documentary film, Towards the Memory of a Revolution: USA 1976, tagged “an antidote to the simple-minded bicentennial hoopla,” premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and was distributed internationally, including on theatrical double-bills with Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County, USA,” and Bob Fosse’s “Lenny.”

Survival of a Small City (1986), a story of gentrification photographed over seven years was broadcast nationwide on PBS stations, underwritten by the Connecticut Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Woodcuts of Antonio Frasconi was broadcast in primetime on WNET, NYC and distributed internationally by The American Federation of Arts, NYC, and the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

The Longing (2008), based on the poems of Teresa de Avila, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The Light at Walden (2014) which poet CA Poet Laureate Carol Muske-Dukes called “a deeply meditative anti-war film,” based on Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,” premiered at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, “where activism gets inspired,“ and has won four international awards.

Other public screenings of Frasconi’s films have included: The San Francisco Art Institute Cinematheque; The American Film Festival (award), the Awareness FF (award), the International Festival of Films on Architecture and Planning (award), The Newsweek-Bolex Documentary FF (award); The Margaret Mead FF, NYC; The Black Maria FF, NJ; Columbia University; NYU; Yale University; The New Yorker Theater, Toronto; The National Film Board of Canada; UCLA; UC Berkeley; The Fox Venice Theater, LA; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Roxie, San Francisco; Independent Focus Series, WNET, NYC. His films are in 100’s of library collections, including Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center; The NY Public Library; The Boston Public Library; and The Smithsonian Institution.

International venues have included: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (exhibit: Not Yet: On the Reinvention of Documentary); The DIA Art Foundation, NYC (exhibit: If You Lived Here); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (exhibit: The Housing Question); The Festival dei Popoli, Florence, Italy; The Havana International FF; as well as in Canada, China, Cuba, Indonesia, Israel, Spain, Turkey, and Uruguay.

He has worked as a cinematographer and/or editor for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; The American Craft Museum, NYC; Asia Society, NYC; Weston Woods Studios, CT; and Artists’ Video Productions, CT, and has been awarded 20 grants and fellowships including from the American Film Institute, the Park Foundation, the NEA Mid-Atlantic Media Fellowship, the CT Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Frasconi teaches Production II Editing, Creating Poetic Cinema; Collaboration & Creativity; Nature, Design & Media; the Global Exchange Workshop; mentors MFA thesis films, and coordinates the first year of the MFA Production Division at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Previously, he taught film production at The New School, NYC, and SUNY, College at Purchase. He has lectured widely, including at: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA; Pomona College, Claremont, CA; The TransVergence Summit, Los Angeles; The Graduate Annenberg Fellows Micro-Seminar; Los Angeles; Cinecittà Studios, Rome, Italy; The Monterrey Institute of Technology, Guadalajara, Mexico; The University of Hawaii, Maui; The Beijing Film Academy, China; Nanjing University of the Arts; and, The Communication University of China, Beijing. He was recently Keynote Speaker at the 2021 Asian University Film Festival: “Collaborating Across Cultures: The Global City Symphony.”

He is currently completing two full-length non-fiction films: THE BEAT FRIAR: The Life of Bill Everson, and, The I CHING: Film of Changes.

His work has been featured in Wired Magazine, Filmmaker Magazine, and The New York Times.