Bruce Baillie
Bruce Baillie was an American experimental filmmaker.
Early life
Baillie was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota on September 24, 1931. to Gladys and E. Kenneth Baillie. His father, E. Kenneth Baillie, was a sculptor who taught at Northern State Teachers College. After graduating high school, Baillie served in the Navy during the Korean War. He studied art at the University of Minnesota and UC Berkeley before studying filmmaking at the London School of Film Technique.Career
Baillie moved to Canyon, California in 1960, working as a longshoreman and making short films. He got a projector and army surplus screen to put on shows in his backyard. Chick Strand and Ernest Callenbach became involved with the exhibition program, known as Canyon Cinema, and eventually they began holding screenings around the Bay Area.Also, in 1961, Baillie, along with friend and fellow cinematic artist Chick Strand, founded San Francisco Cinematheque.
His body of cinematic work includes Quick Billy, To Parsifal, Mass for the Dakota Sioux, Castro Street, All My Life, Valentin de las Sierras, and Tung.
Personal life
Baillie married Lorie Apit in 1986. They had two children, Wind Gwladys Baillie and Keith Kenneth Baillie. Baillie died on April 10, 2020, in Camano Island, Washington.Legacy
In 1991, he was the recipient of AFI's Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists Award.His 1966 short film Castro Street was selected in 1992 for the United States National Film Registry.
In 2012, Stanford University acquired Baillie's archives and the archives of Canyon Cinema. The Academy Film Archive has preserved a number of Bruce Baillie's films, including Castro Street, Still Life, Cherry Yogurt, Little Girl, Roslyn Romance , and Quick Billy Rolls.
His films influenced George Lucas, who would attend screenings of Canyon Cinema in his youth.