Jesse Lerner


Jesse Lerner is a filmmaker and writer based in Los Angeles and Mexico City. His documentaries include Frontierland, about the Latino experience in the United States; Ruins, The Atomic Sublime, The Absent Stone and The American Egypt.

Biography

Lerner directed the short films Magnavoz, T.S.H., and Natives. His films played at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, the International [Film Festival Rotterdam|Rotterdam International Film Festival], the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Aztlán Today exhibit at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. These films were featured at mid-career surveys at the National Gallery of Art, the Cineteca Nacional, Anthology Film Archives, and the Churubusco Studios.
Lerner books include F is for Phony, a survey of faked documentaries, and The Mexperimental Cinema. Two of his publications were associated with film series: Ism Ism Ism and The Mexperimental Cinema.
Lerner has also curated exhibitions at the National Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, the Schindler House/MAK Center, the Guggenheim Museums, and the Robert Flaherty Seminar. He has lectured on film and other visual arts at CalArts, Princeton University, the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, the Freie Universitat Berlin, the Museo Amparo, University College London, the Getty Museum, the Hammer Museum, Cornell University, the Museo Nacional de Antropología, the Berlin Documentary Forum, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Lerner is the father of Minerva "Minnie" Harris Lerner and son of Ralph Lerner and Carol Lerner.

Films

  • The Fragmentations Only Mean... Co-director, with Sara Harris Ben-Ari Co-director DCP. Color. 72 minutes.
  • The Absent Stone Co-director, camera and editor. 35mm. Color.  82 minutes.
  • Atomic Sublime  Director and editor.  16 mm on digital video. B & W and color, 72 minutes. Sound by Sara Harris Ben-Ari.
  • Two Very Short Films about Maya Revival Architecture Director, 16mm, color, 2 minutes.
  • Magnavoz   Director, editor and camera.  16 mm B & W.  25 minutes. Sound design by Sara Harris Ben-Ari.
  • T.S.H. Director, editor, camera and sound.  16 mm B & W.  6 minutes.
  • The American Egypt  Director, editor and camera.  16 mm B & W and color.  57 minutes.
  • Ruins Director, editor and camera.  16mm B & W, 78 minutes.
  • Mexopolis Co-director and camera, with ADOBE L.A.  Super-8 color film, 11 minutes.
  • Frontierland/Fronterilandia Co-director, -editor, -camera and -sound, with Rubén Ortiz Torres.  16 mm, super-8 and high-8 video, B & W and color, 56 minute and 78 minute versions. 
  • Natives Co-director, -editor, -camera and -sound, with Scott Sterling.  16mm B & W, 25 minutes.  Distributed by Subcine, Third World Newsreel.
  • How Many Stars, How Many Stripes? Co-director, -camera, -editor, and -sound, with Fernando Anguita.  16 mm, B & W, 10 minutes.

Books

  • The Catherwood Project .
  • Lean-Droka-Tz.  With Ana Longoni and Mariano Mestman.
  • The Maya of Modernism .  Available in Spanish as Los Mayas del modernismo.
  • The Shock of Modernity/El impacto de la modernidad.

Co-editor

  • Co-editor, with Rubén Ortiz Torres, El Fin: Compendio de Lecturas.
  • Co-editor, with Luciano Piazza, Ism Ism Ism: Experimental Film in Latin America.
  • Co-editor, with Rubén Ortiz Torres, L.A. Collects L.A.: Latin America in Southern California Collections.
  • Co-editor, with Rubén Ortiz Torres, How to Read Pato Pascual: Disney’s Latin America and Latin America’s Disney.
  • Co-editor, with Holly Willis, More Than Meets the Eye: The Videos of Tran T. Kim-Trang.
  • Co-editor, with Alexandra Juhasz, F is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth’s Undoing.