WATERMILL 1993 + WATERMILL CENTER BYRD HOFFMAN SUMMER PROGRAM 2009

About The Film

A double program of short documentaries on The Watermill Center, the institution Robert Wilson founded on Long Island in 1991.

WATERMILL 1993 (1993, 20 min) — directed by Stefan Kurt
Shot in the Center's earliest years, this film documents The Watermill Center in its founding period, capturing the spirit and working methods of the institution as it established itself. Wilson founded the Center in a former Western Union research facility on the edge of the Shinnecock Reservation, and from the beginning conceived of it as a space distinct from conventional theater institutions — a "laboratory for creative experimentation, where artists can work at the intersection of disciplines, drawing inspiration from nature and Wilson's extensive collection of art and artifacts." This film preserves a record of the Center in its first phase, before it grew into the year-round residency space it would become.

WATERMILL CENTER BYRD HOFFMAN SUMMER PROGRAM 2009 (2010, 38 min) — directed by Tomek Jeziorski
Filmed during the 2009 summer program, this documentary captures the Center at a later stage of its development — by which point it had in 2006 become a year-round space for artists-in-residence. The summer program, named for the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds (Wilson's original performance collective), brings together students and established artists from across disciplines in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary environment. The film documents the work and energy of this gathering, conveying the ethos of exchange and experimentation that Wilson intended the Center to embody.

Total running time: approximately 65 minutes.