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American independent filmmaker (born 1943) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jon Stephen Jost (born 16 May 1943) is an American independent filmmaker from Chicago.[1]
 | This article contains promotional content. (March 2018) |
Jon Jost | |
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| Born | May 16, 1943 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
Born in Chicago to a military family, Jost grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expelled from college.
In 1965 he was imprisoned by US authorities for 2 years and 3 months for refusing to cooperate with the Selective Service System.[2] On his release, he engaged in anti-war activities primarily by working for the draft resistance, Chicago Mobilization, and helped found the Chicago branch of Newsreel, the New Left Film production and distribution group.[2]
A self-taught filmmaker, Jost made his first full-length film in 1974. He has made forty long-form films focused on a wide range of American issues. Jost's work has been screened at major film festivals around the world. The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, screened a complete retrospective of his work from January 18 to February 19, 1991. This program was repeated at the UCLA Film Archive, Los Angeles, (March–April), and partially repeated at the American Film Institute Film Theater at the J.F. Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, (February), the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco under the sponsorship of the Film Arts Foundation and San Francisco Film Society, (March–April), and the Harvard Film Archive, Boston, (April). In October, 1991, the Viennale, in Vienna, Austria, in the context of a broader festival, screened a complete retrospective of Jost's films. It was also screened in January–February 1992 at the Arsenal Kino, Berlin.
In 1994 the Bergamo Film Meeting, Italy, organised a complete retrospective of all features and short films, and published a book and catalog on Mr. Jost and his work. A traveling retrospective was done in the Netherlands by the Filmtheater Desmet in fall 1994; and in December 1994 a complete retrospective was done at the Cinemateca in Bologna, Italy, and in Feb 1995 it was repeated at the Film Museo Nazionale, in Torino. Full retrospectives were mounted in 1996 at the Cinemateca Portuguese and Filmoteca Espanol. In 2011 the Jerusalem Cinematheque did an 11 film partial retrospective, also shown in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Since 1996 he has worked almost exclusively in digital video (DV & HD), completing twenty-six features and many short films in electronic formats. Two of his most widely known films are All the Vermeers in New York[1] (1990) and The Bed You Sleep In (1993). His 1977 feature, Last Chants for a Slow Dance is listed in the book 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die.
Jost also works in photography and painting, and writes and plays country western songs.
After living and teaching in Seoul for 4 years, Jost resigned as a "Distinguished Professor" from Yonsei University, in June 2011, and resumed full-time filmmaking. Jost is presently living in Butte, Montana (2020).
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