Brett Simon

Last updated
Brett Simon
Born (1973-11-28) November 28, 1973 (age 48)
Occupation Film director, commercial director, music video director
Years active2001 - present
Website web.archive.org/brettsimon.com

Brett Simon (born November 28, 1973 in Palo Alto, California) is an American commercial, music video and film director.

Contents

Career

Simon graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing, and later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Art Practice. [1] He is a PhD candidate in Film Studies at UC Berkeley. [1] In 2001, he wrote, directed, edited and produced the short film Counterfeit Film, which showed at the Telluride Film Festival, South by Southwest and RESFest and has been archived at the Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley, as well as winning numerous awards. [1] [2] In 2005, he wrote, directed, edited and produced the short film The Sailor's Girl, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. [3] After making a number of short films, he became an accomplished music video director, working on the videos for Marion Raven's "Break You" and "Here I Am", The Killers' "Somebody Told Me", Polar Bear's "Belly", The Joggers' "Hot Autism", Unwritten Law's "Save Me", Good Charlotte's "The Chronicles of Life and Death", New Found Glory's "It's Not Your Fault", Lostprophets' "A Town Called Hypocrisy", Sugarcult's "Do It Alone", Queens of the Stone Age's "Sick, Sick, Sick, Hoobastank's The Reason, and Rise Against's "Audience of One". [4]

In 2008, Simon directed his first feature film, the Catholic school noir Assassination of a High School President , from Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski's script. [2] Assassination of a High School President has premiered at the South by Southwest and Sundance Film Festivals. [5] [6]

Between 1998 and 2003, Simon taught film history, film theory and video production at UC Berkeley. [1] He has also had journalism stints at the Kitchen Sink , Speak and Fabula magazines. [1]

Simon worked with Rob Nilsson[ who? ] and David Herrera on the feature film Security at the Pacific Film Archive.

Personal life

Simon graduated from Gunn High School in 1992. [2] His mother is Joan Simon and his father is Jack Simon, a Los Altos, California psychiatrist and street photographer. [2] [7] He currently lives in Venice, Los Angeles. [8]


Related Research Articles

University of California, Berkeley Public university in Berkeley, California

The University of California, Berkeley is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant university and the first campus of the University of California system. Its fourteen colleges and schools offer over 350 degree programs and enroll some 31,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students. Berkeley is ranked among the world's top universities.

Robert Reich American economic advisor and professor, former US Secretary of Labor

Robert Bernard Reich is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 in the cabinet of President Bill Clinton. He was also a member of President Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board.

Barbara Simons American computer scientist

Barbara Bluestein Simons is an American computer scientist and the former president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). She is a Ph.D. graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and spent her early career working as an IBM researcher. She is the founder and former co-chair of USACM, the ACM U.S. Public Policy Council. Her main areas of research are compiler optimization, scheduling theory and algorithm analysis and design.

Gunn High School High school in Palo Alto, California, United States

Henry M. Gunn Senior High School is one of two public high schools in Palo Alto, California, the other being Palo Alto High School.

Palo Alto High School Comprehensive high school in Palo Alto, California, United States

Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other being crosstown Gunn High School, for which the school has a rivalry with.

Joe Simitian American politician

Saren Joseph Simitian is a California Democratic politician. From 2004 to 2012, he was the State Senator representing California's 11th State Senate district, which encompasses all or part of 13 cities in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. Approaching his term limit at the end of 2012, he ran for and was elected as a Santa Clara County Supervisor. He was re-elected to the same seat in 2016 and again in 2020.

Al Young American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter (1939–2021)

Albert James Young was an American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor. He was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2005 to 2008. Young's many books included novels, collections of poetry, essays, and memoirs. His work appeared in literary journals and magazines including Paris Review, Ploughshares, Essence, The New York Times, Chicago Review, Seattle Review, Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature, Chelsea, Rolling Stone, Gathering of the Tribes, and in anthologies including the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, and the Oxford Anthology of African American Literature.

The William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre, known locally as simply the Greek Theatre, is an 8,500-seat amphitheater owned and operated by the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, USA.

Željko Ivanek American actor of Slovenian-Croatian origin (born 1957)

Željko Ivanek is an American actor of Slovenian-Croatian origin, known for his role as Ray Fiske on Damages, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award. Ivanek is also known for his role of Ed Danvers on Homicide: Life on the Street and Homicide: The Movie, Governor James Devlin on Oz, Andre Drazen on 24, Blake Sterling on the short-lived series The Event, and Emile "The Hunter" Danko in Heroes. From 2014 until 2019, he starred as Russell Jackson in the drama Madam Secretary. He also had a recurring role as FBI Special Agent Jim Racine in the series Banshee.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation American charitable foundation

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is an American foundation established by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore and his wife Betty I. Moore in September 2000 to support scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements and preservation of the character of the Bay Area.

Richard Maynard; American; was an American writer, television producer and educator.

Tiffany Shlain American filmmaker and author (1970)

Tiffany Shlain is an American filmmaker and author. Described by the public radio program On Being as "an internet pioneer", Shlain is the co-founder of the Webby Awards and the founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

<i>Assassination of a High School President</i> 2008 American comedy film

Assassination of a High School President is a 2008 American neo noir comedy film directed by Brett Simon and starring Reece Thompson, Bruce Willis, Mischa Barton, Emily Meade and Michael Rapaport. It was written by Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski. It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Esther Wojcicki American journalist and educator (born 1941)

Esther Denise "Woj" Hochman Wojcicki is an American journalist, educator, and vice chair of the Creative Commons advisory council. Wojcicki has studied education and technology. She is the founder of the Palo Alto High School Media Arts Program in Palo Alto, CA., and the Co-Founder of TractLearning, Inc that publishes the website Tract.app a peer to peer, project-based, gamified learning platform for kids 8 years and over.

University of California Jazz Ensembles

The University of California Jazz Ensembles, also known as the UC Jazz Ensembles, UC Jazz, or UCJE, is the student jazz organization founded in 1967 on the University of California, Berkeley, campus. Founded in 1967, it comprises one or more big bands, numerous jazz combos, a vocal jazz ensemble, an alumni big band, and instructional classes. With a mission statement to foster a community for the performance, study, and promotion of jazz at U.C. Berkeley, its Wednesday Night big band provides free concerts every Thursday noon on Lower Sproul Plaza, its various units perform throughout the San Francisco Bay Area including area high schools, travel to collegiate jazz festivals, and perform overseas, and for many years it sponsored the annual Pacific Coast Jazz Festival. It also provides master classes by its instructors and clinics by prominent guest artists. It has nurtured numerous musicians who have become professional jazz musicians and educators. UC Jazz Ensembles is one of three groups, with the Cal (marching) Band and UC Choral Ensembles, forming Student Musical Activities (SMA), a department within Cal Performances on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Its members are primarily U.C. Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students, representing many academic disciplines.

Idil Ibrahim

Idil Ibrahim is a Somali-American independent film director, producer, actress, writer.

Jesse Moss (filmmaker)

Jesse Moss is an American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer known for his cinéma vérité style. His 2014 film, The Overnighters, was shortlisted for best documentary feature at the Oscars. He has directed four independent, feature-length films, and three television documentaries and has produced 15 documentaries.

Tom Franco American actor

Thomas Andrew Franco is an American actor, artist, and the founder of the Firehouse Art Collective in Berkeley, California. He is the brother of actors James Franco and Dave Franco.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Brett Simon". Independent Exposure . Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bruce Newman (25 January 2008). "Director graduates to big leagues". Palo Alto Daily News. Archived from the original on 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  3. "Assassination of a High School President". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2008-01-15. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  4. Meg Wells (1 March 2008). "Who is Brett Simon". Flux.net. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  5. Mel Valentin (22 March 2008). "SXSW Movie Review: The Assassination of a High School President". /Film. Archived from the original on 29 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  6. Peter Sciretta (25 January 2008). "Sundance Movie Review: Assassination of a High School President". /Film. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  7. "About". 11 April 2015.
  8. "Selected Graduate Student Interests". University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original on 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2008-04-14.