Doug Wolens
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Documentary filmmaker, writer and producer

Doug Wolens is an American documentary filmmaker, writer and producer whose documentary films have touched on various issues from logging (Butterfly) to transhumanism (The Singularity).

Early life

Wolens was raised in Chicago, Illinois.[1] His father sold children's wear while his mother worked in an office.[2] He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1981.[1][2] After graduation, Wolens considered pursuing a MFA in fiction, but his parents only gave him money for graduate school if he studied something 'worthwhile'. Wolens thus studied law at Seton Hall University Law School.[1][2]

Wolens briefly gave up his creative pursuits to practice business law in New York and San Francisco, California.[2][3] During this period, Wolens was involved in asbestos litigation.[2]

Career

After his first marriage ended, Wolens realized while practicing law that he still had an urge to write, so he applied to and was accepted at San Francisco University where he took a screenwriting class.[2][4]

Early documentaries and Happy Loving Couples

In 1993, Wolens became a filmmaker and his first documentary 'Happy Loving Couples' was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In Happy Loving Couples, Wolens presents the difficulties of internal monologues of single women in big cities.[5] Happy Loving Couples haunts the narrator by contrasting the difficulties of single women in big cities with the many images of urban locales.[5] Wolens is noted for making Happy Loving Couples a 'personal film' which uses fictional narration as opposed to autobiographical narration.[5]

Two other shorts followed Happy Loving Couples, 'Reversal' in 1994 and 'In Frame' in 1995.[1]

Weed

Weed, a 1996 film written, directed and produced by Wolens,[6][7][8] premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam before going on a forty-day United States theatrical tour.[1] Weed is a documentary about the eight annual Cannabis Cup and in particular about Americans getting high during it.[4][9] Wolens visited 56 coffeehouses and interviewed 300 people for Weed to get material for the documentary.[2] Wolens documentary on Weed was of particular interest to him since he used to grow pot in the backyard while he was in college.[2]

Butterfly

Wolens directed the documentary Butterfly.[10][11] Butterfly describes Julia Hill, a rebellious, anti logging activist who lives in a redwood tree in her effort protest logging.[12][10] Hill chose Wolens as the only person to document her protests.[12][13][14] Wolens became aware of Hill's campaign during a DYI for his documentary Weed.[15] After not being able to get the story out of his head, Wolens contacted Hill and set up the groundwork for the documentary.[12]

The Singularity

Woolen's next documentary The Singularity[16][17][18] is a documentary which questions transhumanism.[19] The Singularity predicts that eventually technology will go beyond what humans can imagine.[20] Wolens first learned about the singularity in 2000 while self distributing the Butterfly.[21] On a chance occasion he read a blurb in an Internet business magazine about how technology would one day be as smart as people.[20] Wolens then read up on the blurb's author (Kurzweil's) book The Age of Spiritual Machines and it inspired him to create the singularity documentary.[20] Wolens used Kurzeil in the film itself, which uses a lot of animated intercut interviews.[22] Wolens also interviewed people not associated with artificial intelligent speculation or biomolecular work such as former US National Security council advisor Richard A Clarke to give a full view of the topic.[22] Wolens didn't have the needed film grants for the film, however he still went around the country talking to various people related to the films topic which led him to question the evolution of technology one interview at a time.[21]

Personal life

Wolens currently resides in San Francisco, California where he is involved with local events.[15]

In 2005, Wolens was a judge for Eureka, California's 5th annual Humboldt Redwood Coast Jazz Festival in 2005.[23]

Filmography

Film/ShortYearRole
Happy Loving Couples1993Director
Reversal1994Director
Getting Even with Dad1994Production assistant
In Frame1995Director
Weed1996Director, producer, writer
Butterfly2000Director, producer, writer
The Singularity2012Director, producer

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "bio". PBS. PBS. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Joint Efford (our team)". Chicago Reader. Chicago Reader. 23 October 1997. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  3. ↑ "Nov 7 1997". Santa Fe New Mexican (via newspaper.com). Santa Fe New Mexican. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Filmmaker's Passion Brings Documentary To Theaters". Orlando Sentinel. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Bailey, Steve (2005). Media-Audiences-Identity Self Construction Experience (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. p. 240. ISBN 978-1349522996.
  6. ↑ "Weed". Variety. Variety. 30 July 1997. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  7. ↑ "February 20 1998". The Courier Journal (via newspapers.com). The Courier Journal. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  8. ↑ "Top Billing". Newspapers.com. Newspaper.com (Albuquerque Journal). Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  9. ↑ "Weed". Chicago Reader. Chicago Reader. 26 October 1985. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  10. 1 2 Gelder, Lawrence Van (30 March 2001). "Film in Review Butterfly". New York Times. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  11. ↑ "Butterfly's Hard Landing". LA Times. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 "Doc-maker Pursuing New Project Atop Northern California Redwood". Indie Wire. Indie Wire. 11 May 1998. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  13. ↑ "Attack on Luna Another Test for Hill". SF Gate. SF Gate. 3 December 2000. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  14. ↑ Hornblower, Margot (24 June 2001). "Five Months At 180 Ft". Time. Time. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  15. 1 2 "INTERVIEW: Up a Tree; Wolens and "Butterfly" Hill's Tales of Survival". Indie Wire. Indie Wire. 27 March 2001. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  16. ↑ "ALEX GARLAND'S FILM EX MACHINA EXPLORES THE LIMITS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - BUT HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO MACHINES OUTSMARTING MAN?". Independent UK. Independent UK. 23 January 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  17. ↑ "Film Reviews". San Francisco Bay Guardian. San Francisco Bay Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  18. ↑ "Local Boy Makes Good". Press Reader (San Francisco Chronicle). San Francisco Chronicle.
  19. ↑ "Rage Against the Machine (translated)". Next Liberation France. Next Liberation France. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  20. 1 2 3 "Pondering our Cyborg future in documentary". The Atlantic. The Atlantic. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  21. 1 2 "Will we survive our technology". Gizmodo. Gizmodo. 21 March 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  22. 1 2 "Film Review: The Singularity". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  23. ↑ "Festival Time". Northcoast Journal. Northcoast Journal. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
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