Craig Baldwin

Craig Baldwin is an experimental filmmaker who uses ​“found” footage as well as images from the mass media to undermine and transform the traditional documentary, infusing it with the energy of high-speed montage and a provocative commentary on subjects that range from intellectual property rights to consumerism. His film, Wild Gunman, is a compilation of images and associations that deconstruct the Malboro Man, an icon of masculinity and consumer addiction. In another early work, Stolen Movie, Baldwin stormed into movie theaters, filmed the images off the screen, and then ran out the back. Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America is a parody of CIA interventions in developing countries, presented as a mockumentary. Baldwin believes ​“there can be joy in the discovery of unexpected meanings in collage and recombinatory forms. There can be pride in the exercise of ingenuity and resourcefulness in the face of zero budgets through improvisation and re-use of tools and materials, at hand or in the dumpster, rather than the mindless consumption of the next (expensive) gadget.” He is currently a professor at the University of California at Davis.

Co-sponsored by the 50^th Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF).