Tiffany Shlain | |
---|---|
Born | US | April 8, 1970
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, author |
Spouse | Ken Goldberg |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Leonard Shlain |
Website | tiffanyshlain |
Tiffany Shlain (born April 8, 1970) [1] is an American filmmaker, artist, and author. Described by the public radio program On Being as "an internet pioneer", [2] Shlain is the co-founder of the Webby Awards and the founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. [3]
In high school, Shlain co-wrote a proposal called Uniting Nations in Telecommunications & Software (UNITAS), which envisioned students all over the world communicating over personal computers and via modems before the advent of the web. From this proposal, she was invited to be a student ambassador through the People to People program, and traveled to the Soviet Union in 1988. [4] [5]
While a student at UC Berkeley, Shlain produced and directed Hunter & Pandora, an experimental film which won the university's Eisner Award, the highest award in art. In 1992, she earned a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, and was selected as a valedictory speaker for her graduating class. [6]
Shlain studied organizational change at the Harvard Business School Executive Education program and film production at New York University's Sight & Sound program. She is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute (Class of 2007). [7] [8]
In 1996, Shlain co-founded the Webby Awards, [9] an annual event which the New York Times described as the "Oscars of the Web." [10] In 1998, she founded The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. [11] The Webbys had hosts that included Alan Cumming, and appearances by Al Gore, Prince, and Thomas Friedman. [12] [13] Shlain appeared on Good Morning America as the program's on-air internet expert from 2000 – 2003. [14]
In 2002, Shlain directed, produced and co-wrote Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, a documentary about reproductive rights in America. The film premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival [15] and was used nationally by Planned Parenthood to mark the 30-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade . [16]
In 2005, Shlain sold the Webby Awards and founded the San Francisco film studio, the Moxie Institute. [17] Shlain's next documentary, The Tribe, [18] co-written with her husband, Ken Goldberg, explored American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie doll. The Tribe, which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, won 18 awards [19] and was the first documentary short to become #1 on iTunes. [20]
In 2011, her first feature documentary, Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. [21] The film ran in theaters and on television, and was subsequently released on digital platforms. [6] [22] It won 17 awards, [19] including the Tribeca Film Festival's Disruptive Innovation Award. [23]
In 2011, she introduced the concept of "Cloud Filmmaking" with a series of shorts produced through cloud-based collaborative filmmaking. The first film in the series, A Declaration of Interdependence, was released Sept 2011; the second film, Engage, debuted in early 2012. [24] Later that year, both a 10-minute film and a TED Book, called Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks were released. [25] Brain Power premiered in November 2012 at The California Academy of Sciences. [26] It was selected by the US State Department as a part of the 2013 American Film Showcase and was screened at embassies in the Middle East in November 2013. [27] Shlain discussed cloud filmmaking as the keynote speaker at the Tribeca Film Festival's 2013 Interactive Day where she delivered her "Cloud Filmmaking Manifesto." [28]
In 2013, Shlain co-founded the nonprofit Let it Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change, and continued making cloud films. The next film in the series was The Science of Character. To premiere the film, Shlain and her co-workers founded Character Day, where schools and organizations around the world would premiere the film and discuss ideas around character development on the same day in a simultaneous online video conversation. For the second annual Character Day, they premiered The Adaptable Mind, which explores skills needed in the 21st century, and The Making of a Mensch, about the science of character through the Jewish Teachings of Mussar, interpreted through a modern-day lens. In 2019, the sixth and final Character Day included over 200,000 groups in 125 countries and all 50 states, drawing over 4 million participants. [29]
Shlain created two seasons of the AOL series The Future Starts Here, [30] which includes episodes entitled Technology Shabbats, Motherhood Remix, 10 Stages of The Creative Process, [31] The Future of Our Species, Why We Love Robots, co-directed with her husband Ken Goldberg, and A Case for Optimism. [32] The series, which began airing on AOL in 2013 was nominated for an Emmy Award in the News & Documentary for New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle & Culture in 2014, and has since been viewed more than 40 million times. [33]
Shlain "is often asked to comment about Web culture on television and lectures to groups in the U.S. and internationally", according to the Los Angeles Times , [34] and has spoken at TEDWomen and TEDMED. [35] She delivered the keynote address for UC Berkeley's commencement ceremony in May 2010; [35] the speech was included on NPR's list of "The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever." [36]
Shlain directed a film on women and power that was released through Refinery29's "Shatterbox Anthology". [37] Released on October 27, 2016, it is called 50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present, and Future of Women + Power , and explores the 10,000-year history of women. In addition, on May 10, 2017, in support of 50/50 Day: Gender Equality, 11,000 events took place around the world, all linked by the internet. [38] These gatherings of people screened the film, [39] listened to noteworthy activists and celebrities. [38] [40]
In 2017, Shlain was chosen to contribute one of 100 essays about the future, included in the world’s first 3D printed book, Genius: 100 Visions of the Future, which was printed in the International Space Station in zero gravity and debuted at the “Genius 100: Innovation Summit” event, attended by the participants. [41]
In 2019, Shlain's book, 24/6: Giving Up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection was published by Simon & Schuster. [42] [43] In 2020, the book was awarded the Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology. [44] In 2020, Shlain performed her spoken cinema show “Dear Human” at the Museum of Modern Art. [45] [46] [47] [48]
In 2022, she exhibited her solo art show Human Nature, including her feminist history dendrochronology (tree ring) piece, Dendrofemonology. [49] [47] The National Women's History Museum repeated the show in January 2023. [50] [47] [51]
Shlain lives in Marin County, Northern California, with husband, artist and Professor of Robotics at U.C. Berkeley, Ken Goldberg, with whom she frequently collaborates on art installations and other projects. They have two daughters. [52] [53]
Shlain has a brother, Dr. Jordan Shlain; a sister, artist Kimberly Brooks; and brother-in-law, Albert Brooks. Her sister-in-law is Adele Goldberg. Following her father's death, Shlain and her siblings worked together to edit the manuscript of his final book, Leonardo's Brain: Understanding Da Vinci's Creative Genius.[2] [3] [15]
Year | Title | Credit |
---|---|---|
2021 | Pause [54] | Producer, host |
2021 | Dear Student [55] | Director |
2020 | Dear Voter [56] | Director |
2019 | Dear Parent [57] | Director |
2018 | Unstoppable [58] | Director |
2018 | Why I Pledge 5050 | Director, co-writer, editor |
2017 | 30,000 Days [59] | Director, co-writer, editor |
2016 | 50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present, and Future of Women + Power | Director, co-writer, editor |
2015 | The Adaptable Mind | Director, co-writer, editor |
2015 | The Making of a Mensch [60] | Director, co-writer, editor |
2014 | The Future of Our Species | Director, co-writer |
2014 | Creative Bondage | Director, co-writer |
2014 | Parentechnology | Director, co-writer |
2014 | Transboom | Director, co-writer |
2014 | The Photosynthesis of Social Media | Director, co-writer |
2014 | Robots, Botox & Google Glass | Director, co-writer |
2014 | Punk Rock Diplomacy | Director, co-writer |
2014 | A Case for Dreaming | Director, co-writer |
2014 | The Science of Character | Director, co-writer |
2013 | Technology Shabbats | Director, co-writer |
2013 | Motherhood Remixed | Director, co-writer |
2013 | Tech Etiquette | Director, co-writer |
2013 | Why We Love Robots | Director, co-writer |
2013 | Participatory Revolution | Director, co-writer |
2013 | The Creative Process in 10 Acts | Director, co-writer |
2013 | Idea Porn | Director, co-writer |
2013 | A Case for Optimism | Director, co-writer |
2013 | The Future Starts Here' (series) | Director, co-writer |
2013 | Facing the Future | Director, co-writer |
2012 | Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks | Director, co-writer |
2012 | Engage | Director, co-writer |
2011 | Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology [61] | Director, producer, co-writer |
2011 | Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" | Director, co-writer |
2011 | A Declaration of Interdependence | Director, co-writer |
2006 | The Tribe | Director, producer, co-writer |
2003 | Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness | Director, co-writer |
1992 | Hunter & Pandora [62] | Director, Writer |
The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include websites, advertising and media, online film and video, mobile sites and apps, and social.
Leonard Shlain was an American surgeon, writer, and inventor. He was chairperson of laparoscopic surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, and was an associate professor of surgery at University of California, San Francisco.
Lauren Greenfield is an American artist, documentary photographer, and documentary filmmaker. She has published photographic monographs, directed documentary features and series, produced traveling exhibitions, and published in magazines throughout the world.
Lucy Walker is an English film director. She has directed the feature documentaries Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), The Crash Reel (2013), Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017), Bring Your Own Brigade (2021), and Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (2023). She has also directed the short films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) and The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014). Waste Land was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
The Tribe is a short documentary film directed by Tiffany Shlain and narrated by Peter Coyote. Weaving together archival footage, graphics and animation, it tells the history of both the Barbie doll and the Jewish people from Biblical times to the present.
The 1997 Webby Awards were the first of the annual Webby Awards, and also the first-ever nationally televised awards ceremony devoted to the Internet. 700 people attended the event on March 6, 1997, at Bimbo's Night Club in San Francisco, California.
The 1998 Webby Awards were held on March 6, 1998, at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, and were the first event ever to be broadcast live via the Web in 3D. The "People's Voice" awards, chosen by online poll, received 100,000 cumulative votes that year.
Elizabeth Freya Garbus is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are The Farm: Angola, USA,Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,Bobby Fischer Against the World,Love, Marilyn,What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Becoming Cousteau. She is co-founder and co-director of the New York City-based documentary film production company Story Syndicate.
The 6th Annual Webby Awards was held on June 21, 2002, at San Francisco's Legion of Honor auditorium. It was presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and was hosted by Tiffany Shlain, the Webby Awards' founder, and Maya Draisin. Coming on the heels of the dot-com bubble, a 2002 Internet bubble forced cutbacks in the event budget for this ceremony as well.
Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death, & Technology is an autobiographical documentary film directed by Tiffany Shlain, dedicated to her father. The film unfolds during a year in which technology and science literally become a matter of life and death for the director. As Tiffany's father Dr. Leonard Shlain, MD battles brain cancer and she confronts a high-risk pregnancy, her very understanding of connection is challenged. Using a mix of animation, archival footage, and home movies, Shlain attempts to reveal the ties that link us not only to the people we love but also to the world at large. Connected explores how, after centuries of declaring our independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence instead.
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Isidore Bethel is a French-American filmmaker who was among Filmmaker's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2020 and DOC NYC's "40 Under 40" in 2023. The films he edits, directs, and produces use filmmaking to make sense of overwhelming experiences and touch on recurrent themes of displacement, sexuality, aging, trauma, grief, therapy, and art-making. His first feature film as director, Liam, premiered at the Boston LGBT Film Festival in 2018 and received the Jury Prize in the Documentary section of the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival. His second film, Acts of Love, which French actor Francis Leplay co-directed, premiered at Hot Docs, received the Tacoma Film Festival's Best Feature Award, and appeared on MovieWeb's list of the top LGBTQ+ films of 2021.
Character Day is a global event for people to screen films on the topic of science as it relates to character development. Participants review printed materials and resources for discussions linked globally online about their own character, who they are, who they would like to be, and how to develop these character strengths, based on evidence-based research. Character Day, on September 22, 2016, is in its third year. Character Day for 2017 is September 13, 2017. In 2018 it was set for September 26, 2018. September 27–28, 2019 is scheduled.
50/50 is a 2016 documentary film by Tiffany Shlain on "the 10,000 year history of women and power" The film addresses the lack of equal representation in politics. The film premiered on #TEDWomen and at TEDx.
Technology Shabbat or Tech Shabbat is a term coined in 2010 by Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg to describe a day of rest or cessation from the use of all technology with screens: smartphones, personal computers, tablets and television. Shlain introduced the concept, modeled on the traditional Jewish Shabbat, in a series of articles and films after participating in The National Day of Unplugging, an event sponsored by nonprofit think tank Reboot.
Bettina Stephanie Walter is a German documentary film producer.