Matthew Lessner

Matthew Lessner is an independent award-winning filmmaker who lives and works between New York City and Los Angeles.^[1]

Biography

Born in Walnut Creek, California,^[2] Lessner was raised in Roseburg, Oregon, where he attended Roseburg High School.^[1][3] He graduated in 2005 from Chapman University, where he studied film.^[4]

Film career

Lessner's directorial debut was the 2005 short film Darling Darling starring Michael Cera, which screened at the Festival du Court Metrage de Clermont-Ferrand, Comedia, and the Ann Arbor Film Festival where Lessner won the Tom Berman Most Promising Filmmaker Award.^[5] The film is included on the sixth issue of Wholphin DVD magazine with alternate audio versions by John Cleese and Daniel Handler.^[6]

Lessner's second short film, By Modern Measure, premiered at South by Southwest^[7] and also screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.^[8]

In August 2008, Lessner began work on his first feature film The Woods, which was filmed in the woods around Lookingglass, Oregon.^[1][3] The Woods was invited to world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. ^[9] The film made history as the first film to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival that used Kickstarter for production financing.^[10] The Woods premiered in New York at the BAMcinemaFest held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music .^[11] The Woods premiered internationally at the Cologne Conference in Cologne, Germany.^[12]

In August 2011, Lessner was awarded a San Francisco Film Society and Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for screenwriting in support of feature film tentatively titled ROSS. ^[13]

Music video

Lessner directed the music video for the Dirty Projectors' single "Stillness is the Move".^[14] He also directed the videos for the The Raveonettes' song "Last Dance"^[15] and Fool's Gold's "Surprise Hotel".^[16]

Misc

In the spring of 2008 Lessner worked as an intern for syndicated news program Democracy Now! ^[17]

Filmography

Year	Title	Format
2005	Darling Darling	Short Film
2007	By Modern Measure	Short Film
2011	The Woods	Feature Film
(unknown)	ROSS	Feature Film

Music videos

Year	Song Title	Band	Label
2009	"Set in Stone"	Fires of Rome	The Hours Records
2009	"Set in Stone" M83 Remix	Fires of Rome	The Hours Records
2009	"Stillness is the Move"	Dirty Projectors	Domino Records
2009	"Surprise Hotel"	Fool's Gold	IAMSOUND Records
2009	"Last Dance"	The Raveonettes	Vice Records
2009	"Early Warnings"	Foreign Born	Secretly Canadian
2010	"Forgive Me"	Le Loup	Hardly Art
2010	"World News"	Local Natives	Frenchkiss Records
2010	"Neverest"	Hey Champ	Townie Records

Other

Year	Subject	Title	Format
2010	Dirty Projectors + Björk	Mount Wittenberg Orca I, II, III, V VI	Album Trailers
2011	Explosions in the Sky	"Last Known Surroundings"	Video Installation

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Pallone, Cara (July 31, 2008). "RHS Grad to film locally". The News-Review. http://www.nrtoday.com/article/20080731/NEWS/273286736/1016/NONE&parentprofile=1057. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2038227/
3. ^ ^{a b} "Utopia Unplugged". Film Stew. August 1, 2008. http://www.filmstew.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ContentID=17462. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
4. ^ Dodge College alumni make Sundance debut
5. ^ Everleth, Mike (August 16, 2007). "Darling Darling". Bad Lit. http://www.badlit.com/?p=642. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
6. ^ "Wolphin No. 6". Wolphin: A DVD Magazine of Unseen Films. http://www.wholphindvd.com/issues/wholphin-no-6/. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
7. ^ "Film Screening - By Modern Measure". South By Southwest. March 2007. http://2007.sxsw.com/film/screenings/film/F6890.html. Retrieved 2009-10-18. ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ "Film Screening - By Modern Measure". Sundance Film Festival. January 2008. http://www.sundance.org/festival/shorts/dto.asp?genre=Comedy. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
9. ^ "Film Screening - The Woods". Sundance Film Festival. December 2010. http://www.sundance.org/press-center/release/2011-sundance-film-festival-announces-films-in-next-spotlight-new-frontier/. Retrieved 2010-12-03. 
10. ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/risky-business/sundance-woods-unique-financing-model-75710
11. ^ http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=3268
12. ^ http://www.cologne-conference.de/en/reception/sections/look/the-woods/
13. ^ http://sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=22,37&pageid=2348
14. ^ Breihan, Tom (July 16, 2009). "Director's Cut: Dirty Projectors: "Stillness is the Move"". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/news/35813-directors-cut-dirty-projectors-stillness-is-the-move/. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
15. ^ Ryan, Chris (September 29, 2009). "New Video: The Raveonettes, 'Last Dance'". MTV. http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/2009/09/29/new-video-the-raveonettes-last-dance/. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
16. ^ Breihan, Tom (September 24, 2009). "Video Premiere: Fool's Gold: "Surprise Hotel" (New Version)". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/news/36592-video-premiere-fools-gold-surprise-hotel-new-version/. Retrieved 2009-10-18. 
17. ^ http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/sundance_11_matthew_lessner_talks_debut_feature_the_woods/#

External links

• Monte Lomax Productions
• Paranoid US
• RODS Films
• Matthew Lessner at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected Music Videos of Matthew Lessner
• The Woods Teaser 1
• The Woods Teaser 2

Persondata
Name	Lessner, Matthew
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1983
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death