Background
Mike Stoltz is a moving image artist whose practice is dictated by process, working directly with the tools of cinema (images, sound, and time) to reexamine the familiar, the communal and the medium itself. His works are rooted in a bodily encounter with the subject. This manifests on screen in instances of engaging with performers from behind the camera, chance-based interventions in the landscape, moving the camera in concert with architectural structures and directly addressing the audience. Effects are created by hand through in-camera techniques and rephotography. Physicality continues in the process of editing the pieces, cutting directly on 16mm film and composing the soundtracks from tape music and live sound generated with collaborators.
Stoltz's 16mm films and videos have screened internationally at venues such as Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Courtisane, Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (BAFICI), Light Field, International Film Festival Rotterdam, REDCAT, International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam and the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
He has programmed film screenings for Magic Lantern Cinema, The Echo Park Film Center, VISIONS and The Arroyo Seco Cine Club.
Education
- MFA in film and video, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
- BA, English, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Research Interests
- Image and sound relation
- Analog-digital hybridization in filmmaking
- Architectural intervention
Teaching Interests
- 16mm filmmaking
- Experimental film and video art
- Found footage/archival materials
- Critique
- Aesthetics of editing
