David Ellis
Photographer & Filmmaker
Photographs and mixed media works
See The Extraordinary
In The Ordinary
There really is no “ordinary”.
If we look closely, we can often see the extraordinary in what appears to be an everyday object, place, or moment.
It is all about “seeing”, which is deeper than just “looking”, about taking the time to actually “see” the magic that is in things and moments all around us, all the time.
I use many “photographic tools”;
Phone cameras, antique box cameras (from early in the last century, that STILL function with 120 roll film or as pinhole adapted cameras), Polaroid cameras, vintage super-8 film cameras and video cameras.
I construct my own cameras from tin containers or retrofitted hybrid cameras made by attaching box cameras to vintage Polaroid cameras,creating what is called “pinhole” or stenopeic photos, in which there is NO lens at all, but just a very thin sheet of metal with a tiny pin sized hole as an aperture, that allows light to enter, creating an image on photo-sensitive paper or film inside the camera.
My images capture the extraordinary in the simplest of subjects or fleeting moments and the experience of discovery and experimentation is equally extraordinary, exciting, and all magical…always full of surprises!
Thank you for viewing my work. I hope you enjoy the experience
as much as I enjoy creating it!
David Ellis
Pézenas, France
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David Ellis
Award winning filmmaker & photographer
Exploring a new digital avant-garde.
Award winning director/filmmaker, David Ellis, has emerged notably at the forefront of a new wave of experimental film making and photography. With a fiercely original, distinctive and visionary style, his film-works are original and innovative cinema where traditional storytelling is redefined through the absence of dialogue or defined narrative. In this non-traditional approach, the interplay of image and sound leaves the viewer to create their own narrative in cinema created as pure visual poetry. Without the burden of narrative or limitation of language, it is intended to be responded to as the pure art of moving image and sound.
In his exploratory approach to film making, the "film" no longer needs to “make sense” as viewers form their own stories.
As an artist/filmmaker, he is influenced by Zen Buddhism and by early 20th century experimental avant-garde films by artists such as Fernand Léger, Man Ray, Viking Eggleling, Hans Richter, Walter Ruttman and others. His recent film works employ influences from cubism, and Russian Constructivist & Suprematist works by such artists as Rodchenko, Malevich and Lyubov Popova, employing the design elements as a pure graphic art form.
While avant-garde in the same spirit as those early film pioneers, his work is non-narrative in the traditional sense, exploring the moving image, and the inter-dependency of the movement and the evolution of the image on the screen with similar qualities in the sound that accompanies it. These works utilize this relationship of sound and image so that the sound is not simply a “cue” to “ready” the audience’s responses to the film. Audio is no longer simply a background to fill an empty space around the visuals, but is on an equal trajectory with the image as an essential component.
Selected Film Festivals & Awards
2023 - JA FEST International Poetry Film Competition - Lisbon, Portugal - Long Departure
2022 - AIDFF Athens Int. Digital Film Festival -Long Departure
2021 - OneTakeFilmFestival,Zagreb, Croatia
2021 - Suspaustas Laikas, Vilnius,LT - NO SIGNAL
2019 - New Filmmakers NY - Lamentation For Lost Dreams - 3 Études
2018 - VIFF Vienna Independent Film Festival - Lamentation For Lost Dreams - Three Études
2018 - SENE Film Festival - Providence, RI - Time Retrograde
2017 - SENE Film Festival - Providence, RI - Long Departure
2017 - Open Air Film Festival, Minsk, Belarus - Long Departure
2017 - London International Short Film Festival - Time Retrograde
2017 - Girona Film Festival,SP - Time Retrograde
2017 - Prague Independent Film Festival - Time - Retrograde - Award Best Experimental Film
2017 - Vienna Independent Film Festival - Long Departure & Time-Retrograde
2017 - US Super8 Film & Video Festival - Long Departure - Winner Best Film
2016 - PIFF Prague Independent Film Festival - NO SIGNAL - Winner Best Experimental Short
2016 - Boston Short Film Festival, Boston, MA - Long Departure - Winner Best Experimental Short
2016 - Dallas VideoFest, Dallas, TX - Long Departure
2016 - VIDEOMEDEJA, Novi Sad, Serbia - Long Departure
2016 - Cannes Short Film Festival, Nice, FR- NO SIGNAL
2016 - Blow-Up Arthouse Film Festival, Chicago - UHF
2016 - Experimental Superstars Film Festival, Novi Sad,Serbia - XdubX
2016 - SENE Film Festival, Providence,RI,USA - NO SIGNAL - Audience Award
2016 - U.S. Super 8 Film & Video Festival - NO SIGNAL - Honorable Mention
2016 - Manchester International Film Festival,UK - XdubX
2015 - 401 Film Festival, Providence, RI - UHF
2015 - New Jersey International Film Festival - U H F- Honorable Mention
2015 - Festival Parachute Light Zero, Paris, France - U H F
2015 - HANGAR Centre de Producció, Barcelona,SP - Solo screening
2014 - LIVEMEDIA- Webcast interview & screening - Palabras Perdidas - Barcelona, SP
2014 - HANGAR Centre de Producció, Barcelona, SP - Awarded 3 month filmmaker residency.
2014 - VIDEOFORMES International Digital Arts Film Festival,Clermont-Ferrand, FR - U H F
2013 - RhodyWood Indie Film Makers, Providence, RI
2012 - Gallery Eva, Provincetown, MA. - Selected Shorts
2012 - Indie Fest, La Jolla, CA. Award of Merit - FLASH-FILMS
2012 - Atlanta Shorts Fest, Atlanta GA. - FLASH-FILMS
2012 - Oak Cliff Film Festival, Dallas TX. - FLASH-FILMS
2011 - Provincetown Int. Film Festival, US - NEON
2010 - BAC-11 Festival, Barcelona, Spain - NEON
2010 - DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA - FLASH-FILMS
TO VIEW MY FILMS ON VIMEO.COM PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE VIMEO LINK
Contact
For Questions or more information on images and pricing, please contact me via email.
Thank you for visiting my site!
Pour plus d’informations sur les photos ou les prix, s’il vous plaît contactez-moi par e-mail. Merci!
David Ellis Atelier - Pézenas, France