Wheeler Winston Dixon
Encyclopedia
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, New Brunswick; The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
in New York; and the University of Amsterdam, Holland. He received his Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
in 1982. He is also an American experimental
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
filmmaker
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, and the James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies
Film theory
Film theory is an academic discipline that aims to explore the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...
and Professor of English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and Coordinator of the Film Studies Program at UNL. He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
.
Film Criticism
He is, with Gwendolyn Audrey FosterGwendolyn Audrey Foster
Gwendolyn Audrey Foster is a professor in the Department of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, specializing in film studies, cultural studies, and Postfeminist Critical Theory...
, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Quarterly Review of Film and Video
Quarterly Review of Film and Video
The Quarterly Review of Film and Video, founded in 1962, and now published five times a year by Taylor and Francis, presents critical, historical, and theoretical essays, book reviews, and interviews in the area of moving image studies including film, video, and digital imaging studies...
. He is also a prolific author of books of film criticism. His newest books as author or editor include:
- Death of the Moguls: The End of Classical Hollywood (forthcoming, Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
) - 21st Century Hollywood: Movies in the Era of Transformation, with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, 2011) - A History of Horror (Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, 2010) - Film Noir and The Cinema of Paranoia (Edinburgh University PressEdinburgh University PressEdinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland.-History:Edinburgh University Press was founded over 50 years ago and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh in 1992...
and Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, 2009) - A Short History of Film, with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, and I.B. TaurisI.B. TaurisI. B. Tauris is an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York.-History:I.B.Tauris was founded in 1983. Its declared strategy was to fill the perceived gap between trade publishing houses and university presses—that is, to publish serious but accessible works on international...
, 2008) - Film Talk: Directors at Work (Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, 2007) - Visions of Paradise: Images of EdenGarden of EdenThe Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
in the Cinema (Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, 2006) - American CinemaCinema of the United StatesThe cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
of the 1940s: Themes and Variations (Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, 2006) - Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood (Southern Illinois UPSouthern Illinois UniversitySouthern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...
, 2005) - Film and Television After 9/11 (editor; Southern Illinois UPSouthern Illinois UniversitySouthern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...
, 2004) - Visions of the ApocalypseApocalypticismApocalypticism is the religious belief that there will be an apocalypse, a term which originally referred to a revelation of God's will, but now usually refers to belief that the world will come to an end time very soon, even within one's own lifetime...
: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema (Wallflower, 2003) - Straight: Constructions of HeterosexualityHeterosexualityHeterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions to persons of the opposite sex";...
in the Cinema (State University of New York Press, 2003) - Experimental CinemaExperimental filmExperimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
: The Film Reader, co-edited with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (Routledge, 2002).
Dixon’s other books include Disaster and Memory: Celebrity Culture and the Crisis of Hollywood Cinema (Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,...
, 1999); The Exploding Eye: A Re-Visionary History of the American Experimental Cinema (State University of New York Press, 1997), on 1960s American experimental filmmakers; The Films of Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
(State University of New York Press, 1997), on the life and works of the noted French filmmaker; and The Transparency of Spectacle: Meditations on the Moving Image (State University of New York Press Series in Postmodern Culture, 1998), on the impact of changing technologies (especially computer generated imagery and digital technology) in cinema and television.
Dixon has also written the books Re-Viewing British Cinema: 1900-1992 (1994) from State University of New York Press, a critical anthology on the history of the British film; It Looks at You: Notes on the Returned Gaze of Cinema, also from SUNY UP, on recent developments in interactive cinema; and The Early Film Criticism of François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
(Indiana University Press, 1993).
As editor of the State University of New York Press
State University of New York Press
The State University of New York Press , is a university press and a Center for Scholarly Communication. The Press is part of the State University of New York system and is located in Albany, New York.- History :...
Cultural Studies in Cinema / Video Series, Dixon created a new group of books on cinema/video theory and practice. The more than twenty-five volumes in the series include PostNegritude Visual and Literary Culture by Mark A. Reid (1997); The Folklore of Consensus: Theatricality in the Italian Commercial Cinema, 1930-1943 by Marcia Landy (1998); Celluloid Nationalism and Other Melodramas: From Post-Revolutionary Mexico to fin de siglo Mexamérica by Susan Dever (2003); Bad: Infamy, Darkness, Evil, and Slime on Screen, Murray Pomerance, ed. (2004), and Digital Diaspora: A Race for Cyberspace by Anna Everett (2009).
Dixon is the author of more than seventy articles on film theory, history and criticism, along with numerous book and video reviews, which have appeared in Cinéaste
Cineaste
Cineaste is a film magazine published quarterly. It has been publishing reviews, in-depth analyses and interviews since 1967. The magazine independently operates out of New York City with no financial ties to any film studios or academic institutions...
, Interview
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
, Film Quarterly
Film Quarterly
Film Quarterly is a film journal published by University of California Press, in Berkeley, California, United States. It was first published in 1945 as Hollywood Quarterly, was renamed The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television in 1951, and received its current title in 1958...
, Literature/Film Quarterly, Films in Review, Post Script, Journal of Film and Video
Journal of Film and Video
The Journal of Film and Video is the official academic journal of the University Film and Video Association. It features articles on film and video production, history, theory, criticism, and aesthetics. The journal is published by the University of Illinois Press and the current editor is Stephen...
, Film Criticism
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
, New Orleans Review, Classic Images
Classic Images
Classic Images is a monthly American mail-subscription newspaper in tabloid format, founded in 1962 by film collector Sam Rubin, dedicated to film and television of the "Golden Age." Its offices are located in Muscatine, Iowa and it is published by the Muscatine Journal division of Lee Enterprises,...
, Film and Philosophy and numerous other journals.
Dixon is on the editorial board of the journal Film Criticism
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
, and was a member of the editorial board of Cinema Journal
Cinema Journal
The Cinema Journal is published by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies . It features articles on film studies, television studies, media studies, visual arts, cultural studies, film and media history, and moving image studies....
until 2003. He has appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
PBS NewsHour is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. The show is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a company co-owned by former anchors Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, and Liberty Media, which owns a 65% stake in the...
on PBS, discussing film production in the aftermath of 9/11, and his lecture, “The End of Cinema,” was presented at the Columbia University Seminar on Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation on February 12, 2004. He also delivered the keynote speech, "The Limits of Time," at the 2009 Film and History national convention in Chicago.
In 2008, Dixon appeared in the documentary "Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
: A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma," as part of a three-disc, four-film box set of Godard's films Passion
Passion (1982 film)
Passion is a 1982 film by Jean-Luc Godard, and the second feature film made during his return to relatively mainstream filmmaking in the 1980s, sometimes referred to as the Second Wave...
, Prénom Carmen
Prénom Carmen
First Name: Carmen is a 1983 film by Jean-Luc Godard. It is very loosely based on Bizet's opera Carmen.The protagonist is Carmen X , a female member of a terrorist gang...
, Détective
Détective
Détective is a 1985 French crime film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It was entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Laurent Terzieff - William Prospero* Aurelle Doazan - Arielle* Jean-Pierre Léaud - Inspector Neveu...
and Hélas pour moi, released by Lionsgate Films, offering commentary on Godard's later works.
In December 2010, he was appointed Series Editor with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
Gwendolyn Audrey Foster is a professor in the Department of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, specializing in film studies, cultural studies, and Postfeminist Critical Theory...
of the new book series New Perspectives on World Cinema, for the Anthem Press, London. Also in 2010, Dixon began appearing in an ongoing series of short videos entitled Frame by Frame, and in 2011 created a print blog, also entitled Frame by Frame, both discussing the history, theory, and criticism of film, digital culture, and related issues.
A complete list of Dixon’s publications can be found in the MLA International Bibliography, available on CD-ROM, or as an Internet database. He is also the co-founder, with Michael Downey, of the proto-punk band Figures of Light
Figures of Light
Figures of Light is an American proto-punk band formed in 1970 by Wheeler Winston Dixon and Michael Downey. Their latest project, the CD "Drop Dead," was recorded in Brooklyn, New York at Mitro's Studios, June, 2011, and produced by Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs, featuring fifteen new tracks from...
, formed in 1970; the recordings of this band are available on Norton Records
Norton Records
For the Canadian independent record label of the same name, see Matt Minglewood.Norton Records, a New York City based independent record label founded by musicians Miriam Linna and Billy Miller, maintains a focus on primitive, retro rock'n'roll, rockabilly, garage punk, garage rock, lounge music...
.
Filmmaking
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine and Andy Warhol's Interview
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
magazine. He later went to London, and briefly became part of the Arts Lab
Arts Lab
The Arts Lab was an alternative arts centre, founded in 1967 by Jim Haynes at 182 Drury Lane. Although only active for two years, it was influential in inspiring many similar centres in the UK and continental Europe, including the expanded I.C.A...
in Drury Lane, organizing a screening of his own work, and making short films.
Back in the United States, he worked with the pioneering video group TVTV
TVTV
TVTV was a San Francisco-based pioneering video collective founded in 1972 by Allen Rucker, Michael Shamberg, Tom Weinberg, Hudson Marquez and Megan Williams. Shamberg was author of the 1971 "do-it-yourself" video production manual Guerrilla Television. Over the years, more than thirty "guerrilla...
in 1976, during the group's Los Angeles period, editing many of the episodes of their series Supervision for PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, and later the group's final effort, The TVTV Show, made in conjunction with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. He also edited a demo reel for Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
, which was directed by Harold Ramis
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
, entitled "The World's Largest Car Wash."
On his own, in the United States and Europe, he made numerous short and medium length experimental films from 1969 to 1976, and made his last film to date, a feature, Squatters, in France in 1995. In 1974, he briefly worked as an editor for cultural anthropologist Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
on his series of films on Choreometrics. In 1979, he wrote and directed a series of speculative science fiction films for hire.
Dixon’s films and videotapes have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, The British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, The Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, the Jewish Museum
Jewish Museum
Jewish Museum may refer to:Australia* Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourne, VictoriaAustria* Jewish Museum ViennaCzech Republic* Jewish Museum of PragueDenmark* Danish Jewish Museum, CopenhagenGeorgia...
, The San Francisco Cinématheque, The New Arts Lab, The Collective for Living Cinema, and The Kitchen Center for Experimental Art.
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York, to celebrate the publication of his book The Exploding Eye: A Revisionary History of 1960s American Experimental Cinema, in conjunction with a series of screenings of classic experimental films he curated for the occasion.
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. At that time, his independent films were acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum, in both print and original format.
Filmography (Independent Films)
- Wedding (1969)
- Quick Constant and Solid Instant (1969)
- The DC Five Memorial Film (1969)
- London Clouds (1970)
- Serial Metaphysics (1972)
- Waste Motion (1974)
- Tightrope (1974)
- Stargrove (1974)
- Gaze (1974)
- An Evening with Chris Jangaard (1974)
- Dana Can Deal (1974)
- Damage (1974)
- Un Petit Examen, and Not So Damned Petit Either, or, the Light Shining Over the Dark (1974)
- Madagascar, or, Caroline Kennedy's Sinful Life in London (1974)
- The Diaries (1986)
- Distance (1987)
- Women Who Made the Movies (1992)
- What Can I Do? (1994)
- Squatters (1995)
Filmography (Commercial Films)
- Amazing World of Ghosts (1978)
- UFO Exclusive (1978)
- Mysteries from the Bible (1979)
- UFO: Top Secret (1979)
- Attack from Outer Space (1979)
- World of Mystery (1979)
External links
- Wheeler Winston Dixon's Home Page
- Official Site for Dixon's Films
- Official Quarterly Review of Film and Video Homepage
- Interview with Wheeler Winston Dixon
- "Vanishing Point," essay in Senses of Cinema 43
- "The Power of Resistance: Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne," essay in Senses of Cinema 46
- "Beyond Characterization: Performance in 1960s Experimental Cinema," essay in Screening the Past 29
- "Some Notes on Streaming," essay in Flow Magazine 14.1 (June 2011)