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Biography
Joan Braderman is an American writer, performer, director and video artist. Inserting the artist into appropriated media images, her early work interrogated ideas of representation and U.S. culture. Braderman's video works are considered to have pioneered "stand up theory", describing the dissection of popular media through performative embodiment.
Early life and Education
Joan Braderman was born in Washington, DC, to parents Betty and Eugene Braderman.
Braderman attended Harvard University, graduating in 1970 with a BA cum laude. Braderman recalls being the only woman in her filmmaking class. In 1971 she entered graduate school at New York University. Braderman’s studies focused on 16mm filmmaking, while she learned video art production by self-teaching at various Media Access Centres in New York. Throughout the 1970’s, Braderman was an anti-war, feminist and civil rights activist, involved in political organizations. She received her MA from New York University in 1973, and a Masters of Philosophy in 1976.
Personal life
Braderman married Robert Reckman in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1996, choosing to keep her maiden name.
Career
Braderman is a Professor of Video, Film and Media Studies at Hampshire College, Massachusetts. Her teaching work extends throughout the United States at The School of Visual Arts in New York City, The Boston Museum School, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the Media School of the London Art Institute, and the Universidad catolica portuguesa in Porto, Portugal.
She is president of the production company No More Nice Girls Productions. She has served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, as well as many film and television associations, including the Association of Independent Film and Video Makers and The Independent Television Services (ITVS).
In Film and Video
Braderman's work appears in numerous international permanent collections:
- The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park: Lincoln, Massachusetts
- Institute of Contemporary Art, London
- Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
- Pacific Film Archive: Berkeley, CA
- Harvard University Cinematheque: Cambridge, MASan Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
- Museo de Oviedo y Ayunta de Sevilla, Spain
- Wexner Center for the Arts: Columbus,OH
- Walker Art Center: Minneapolis, MN
Joan Braderman is a founding member of Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics, a magazine produced by a collective of feminist artists and writers to dedicate writing and attention to women in the arts. She wrote and directed her film, The Heretics, about the collective in which 24 artists spoke about times they challenged established notions of gender and power.The Heretics was the subject of a solo screening program at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2009.
Braderman collarated with Paper Tiger Television ad with Manuel De Landa on several of her most notable works, including Natalie Didn't Drown (1983) and Joan Does Dynasty (1986). t's history of exhibition includes , the 1987 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, as part of , the American Film Institute National Video Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival among many other venues.
Grants & Fellowships
Braderman's work has additionally been awarded grants and fellowships from a number of institutions:
- Her Take- 10 Women Filmmakers Honored by the Documentary Channel (2013)
- Berkeley Film Fund Grant (2009)
- Hewllett - Mellon Foundation (1987, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001-2007)
- MacArthur Foundation (1998 and 2004)
- Fulbright Foundation Chair in Electronic Arts, Porto, Portugal (2002)
- Northampton Arts Council Grant (2001)
- Fund for Women Artists (1998–99)
- Lemelson Foundation (1994, 1998)
- Wexner Center for the Arts, Visiting Artist (January & August 1993, Summer 1998)
- Koopman Chair in the Visual Arts, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford (1996–97)
- New York State Council on the Arts (1989, 1992, 1994, 1996)
- The Massachusetts Cultural Council (1993)
- The Massachusetts Council on the Arts CAT FUND (1991–92)National Endowment for the Arts (1989, 1990-1991)
- The New England Fellowships Program through the NEA & the American Film Institute (1989)
- The Jerome Foundation (1987–88)
- New York Foundation for the Arts (1987–88)
- Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Fellow (1979)
Video/Film Works
| Natalie Didn’t Drown - Joan Braderman ‘Reads’ The National Enquirer (1983) 28 min, colour. | |
|---|---|
| Braderman’s first video features the artist performing a monologue that satirizes the popular tabloid The National Enquirer. Braderman began developing the video after the founder of Paper Tiger TV, Dee Dee Halleck, dared her to besmirch the editor of the tabloid Manuel De Landa co-directed the video. Natalie Didn’t Drown debuted Braderman’s style of performative one-woman commentary, later dubbed Stand-Up Theory. Natalie Didn’t Drown was originally broadcast on Paper Tiger TV and shown at the 1984 American Film Institute Video Olympics. | |
| Joan Does Dynasty (1986) 31 min, colour. | |
| Joan Does Dynasty involves Braderman using video editing techniques to insert her image into scenes from a popular American soap opera, providing a live running commentary and analysis of the soap. Braderman focused on deconstructing how the media represents gender and class. She collaborated with Manuel De Landa on the effects for which they became famous. Joan Does Dynasty is considered “the most widely distributed feminist video ever made. | |
| No More Nice Girls (1989) 44 min, colour. | |
| Braderman’s No More Nice Girls comments on the artist’s lived experience in her community of feminist scholars and artists. The work alternates between fiction and autobiography, following the personal and political lives of multiple female protagonists. No More Nice Girls premiered at The Collective for Living Cinema in New York in 1989 and won first prize at the Daniel Wadsworth National Video Festival in 1990. | |
| 30 Second Spot: For A Bi-Centennial Without Colonies (1989) 11min, colour. | |
| Thirty Second Spot Reconsidered presents the fictional story of an artist in the 1970s who attempts to purchase network time on broadcast television in order to advertise counter-bicentennial activities. The video demonstrates how censorship is embedded in the corporate systems that govern broadcast television. | |
| Joan Sees Stars (1993) 60 min, colour. | |
| Reminiscent of Joan Does Dynasty, Braderman uses editing techniques to insert herself into scenes from popular Hollywood films. Her interaction with the image raises questions about the American fascination with celebrity, and how gender operates in Hollywood film. Joan Sees Stars focuses on the representation of Elizabeth Taylor and other Hollywood divas. The film was co-directed by Dana Master. | |
| Video Bites: Framed (1998-1999) 24min, colour | |
| Premiere: PANDEMONIUM, FESTIVAL FOR MOVING IMAGES, London Pandemonium Audience Award, Oct. 1998 Impakt Festival, The Netherlands, 1998 University of Massachusetts & Hampshire College, Fall, 1998 Harvard University, Carpenter Center, Feb 1999 Amsterdam Public Television, Spring 1999 "WOMEN DIRECT" - Ithaca College, Spring 1999 Boston Women in Film/Video, Spring 2000 | |
| Para No Olvidar: Los Calles de mi Habana viejo (2004) 6 min, digital, color, sound. | |
| A video collage of Old Havana streets, which occupied a place in the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana’s permanent exhibition. |
Feature Films
The Heretics (2009)
Written and directed by Braderman, The Heretics is her first feature. Described as an experimental documentary, the film is a celebration of the Heresies Collective, a feminist art collective established in 1976, of which Joan was a founding member. It offers an inside look at how one of the thousands of collectives worked during the Second Wave of the Feminist movement. The Heretics is produced by Crescent Diamond TV.
Style and Soundtrack
The Heretics was shot in 24p mini-dv video. The film incorporates interview footage with still images, animation, archival footage, artworks and staged scenes where young actresses play the role of collective members. The collage style of the film intentionally recalls the diversity of experience within the feminist art world in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. The original soundtrack, primarily made by women, likewise draws from collage practices This original soundtrack was created by guitarist and producer, June Millington. Millington first found success in the all-woman rock band, Fanny, which is the first group of women rock'and'rollers to sign a recording contract with a major studio. Playing guitar for Chris Williamson, Holly Near and others, she is considered one of the "godmother's of Womens Musiic,. so she was an especially appropriate choice to create the soundtrack for THE HERETICS. When she heard the film was in post-production, she tracked down Braderman in her studio, watched the rough-cut for 10 minutes and said, "your music needs were just resolved."
The documentary specifically employs digital motion graphics to “extend the aesthetics of the magazine into the digital realm and onto the screen.” However, the bulk of the film consists of interviews with twenty-eight of the collective members, who re-visit what the collective meant to them and the memories they have of their time with the collective.
Plot
The plot is semi-autobiographical, and follows Braderman’s fictional first person account as she arrives in New York City in 1971 and is introduced to the artistic culture of lower Manhattan at the time. However, the narrative format is minimized and employed only as a framing device. Braderman does not focus on any one of the women, but rather makes the feminist movement itself the focus of her film. This allows the structure of the film to reflect the non-hierarchical structure of the collective, where no one woman is valued above the others. The film’s relationship to the past has been described as celebratory and nostalgic.
Production
In order to make the film, Braderman travelled between New Mexico and Italy in order to re-connect with former collective members who were now living in widely different locations around the world. The film was shot in Carboneras, Spain; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Northampton, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Venice, Italy; San Francisco, California, and New York City.
The former collective members featured in the film are Emma Amos, Ida Applebroog, Patsy Beckert, Mary Beth Edelson, Su Friedrich, Janet Froelich, Harmony Hammond, Sue Heinemann, Elizabeth Hess, Joyce Kozloff, Arlene Ladden, Lucy Lippard, Mary Sabra Moore, Marty Pottenger, Miriam Schapiro, Amy Sillman, Joan Snyder, Pat Steir, Elke Solomon, May Stevens, Michelle Stuart, Susana Torre, Cecilia Vicuña, Elizabeth Weatherford, Sally Webster and Nina Yankowitz.
Reception
The Heretics has been well-received on the whole, garnering positive reviews online and in publications such as The New York Times and ARTFORUM. The film is celebrated for its spirited and affirmative look at a period of feminist revolution and great social change. However, some male reviewers have criticized Braderman’s direction, claiming the documentary makes "vague" statements about inequality.
Documentaries
| July 4, 1976 (1977) 20 min. BW. |
| The People’s Convention, South Bronx (1980) 18 min, colour. |
| Waiting for the Invasion - U.S. Citizens in Nicaragua (1984) 28 min, colour Directed by Dee Dee Halleck, this short documentary focuses on the Contra War in Nicaragua, and the atmosphere of paranoia and preparation that existed among young citizens in the time following Regan’s invasion of Grenada. This story is told through a focus on a diverse group of U.S. citizens who live and work in Nicaragua for different reasons. Braderman co-produced the documentary alongside Halleck, Skip Blumberg, Joel Kovel and Karen Ranucci. Waiting for the Invasion won Best Documentary at Global Village Documentary Festival in New York City in 1984. |
| Tell Them For Us; Madre in Nicaragua (1985) 28 min, colour. Braderman co-produced and edited this short documentary with CBS News cameraperson Jane Lurie. Tell Them For Us; Madre in Nicaragua focuses on a diverse group of American female members of the organization MADRE, as they travel within Nicaragua to learn about the effects of the conflict. Tell Them For Us was screened in the U.S. House of Representatives. |
No More Nice Girls Productions
Braderman’s non-profit production company is located in Northampton, Massachusetts. The company produces all of Braderman's video/film works, multimedia works, web sites and web series for online, TV, home video and gallery distribution.
The No More Nice Girls mandate expresses an investment in allowing artists to secure freedom of speech through access to the medium of video and internet. They aim to produce and distribute analytical, intelligent film that prioritizes subjectivity and envisions a democratic future.
The company includes a facilities cooperative and a screening space, as well as community outreach programming. Other members include Crescent Diamond, Dana Master and Stashu Kybartes.
Themes
Braderman’s work engages with ideas about female identity. A common theme in her work is an invasive and critical look at the production of media and popular culture, including the representation of women in these spaces. Braderman has stated: “my work has been about creating alternative representations of dominant rhetorical categories such as woman, sexuality, space, or politics."
Braderman's work engages with feminist histories of collage, combining the medium with irony and black humour. Braderman’s work also invests in producing a record of a women’s movement that threatens to disappear from history.
Exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art in New York,
Institute for Contemporary Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Bienniel,
The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2010
The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art,
The Viennale, Venice, Italy
The American Center, Paris
The Edinburgh Film Festival, July, 1987
Woman in the Director's Chair, Chicago
The Documentary Channel, Dish Network, USA, ongoing national license
European/International Television Distribution, Danish Broadcasting Co., LICENSED, 2011 for six years.
Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Paramount Theater, Boston, Ma., March 2012
Cinéma Féministe Television and Zavod Udarnik, 2012
Metro Cinema, iAlberta, Canada, 2012
The Lower East Side Girls Club, NYC
Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Santa Barbara, CA, Dec. 2009
Academy of Music, Northampton, MA., Oct. 2009
Vermont International Film/Video Festival, Oct. 2009
Ankara International Film Festival, Ankara, Turkey, Feb. 2010
Time and Space Theater, Hudson, NY, Dec.2009 and March 2010
Frameline International Film/Video Festival, San Francisco, CA
Smith College, Northampton, MA, Feb 27, 2010
Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Princeton, NJ, March 12, 2010
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, February 11 and 14, 2010
Katzen Center for the Arts & National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, Oct. 30, 2009
Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Santa Barbara, CA, Dec. 2009
Academy of Music, Northampton, MA., Oct. 2009
Vermont International Film/Video Festival, Oct. 2009
Ankara International Film Festival, Ankara, Turkey, Feb. 2010
Time and Space Theater, Hudson, NY, Dec.2009 and March 2010
Frameline International Film/Video Festival, San Francisco, CA
Smith College, Northampton, MA, Feb 27, 2010
Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Princeton, NJ, March 12, 2010
Buffalo Women’s Film Festival, March 4, 2010
Santa Fe International Film Festival, Nov. 2009
Closing Night, San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival, April 2010
Writing
Braderman was a founding member of the Heresies Collective, which published from 1977-1992, during the second wave of feminism. During the 1970s she contributed to the feminist journal publication that the collective released by writing and editing.
Braderman wrote scripts for Manuel De Landa as well as the scripts for all of her own works.
Joan Braderman has written critically about film and video as well as her experiences in the feminist movement. Her essays include Feminism and Video: A View From The Village, Reclaiming the Utopian Movement, and Radical Art in Theory and Practice.
Reception
Braderman’s work has been reviewed widely in such publications as The New York Times, Village Voice, ARTFORUM, The Independent, The Guardian (of London), The Washington Post, Afterimage, Art Journal, Contemporanea and many other places.
In 1995, Braderman was given a retrospective by the De Cordova Museum in Massachussets. Braderman has been awarded multiple grants and fellowships, including the National Endowment for Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacArthur Foundation for Digital Archive Creation, and the Bay Area Video Coalition MediaMaker of the Year award.
In March 2013, Braderman was featured in the "Her Take," a series of 10 Women Filmmakers honored by the Documentary Channel.