allan siegel

Allan was one of the founding members of the documentary film collective Newsreel and later a co-director of Third World Newsreel. His films have been presented at major international festivals and on television throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. His photographs, video works and mixed media installations have been exhibited in Europe and the United States. He lives in Budapest and was a Senior Lecturer in the Intermedia Department at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Most recently, he is the author of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS of the FOOD KIND - CITIES, PUBLIC SPACE AND DEMOCRACY.

SELECTED PROJECTS
ASSASSINATION: THE LAST DAYS OF MALCOLM X (currently in post-production);
WHERE ARE THE POETS TODAY? - 7 minute video, June 2012, Pärnu Film & Video festival August 2012; Les Instants Video Festival Marseilles;
AMERICA (2008/1971) - director/editor - Cinema du Reel, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Whitney Museum of American Art – 60s film retrospective;
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER (2008) Reconnecting the Dots of '68 - Meantime Exhibition Space, Cheltenham, UK Spring 2008;
USTI OPRE (2007) Director/Editor - Hungarian, German, UK co-production. A feature length documentary film about contemporary Roma music from Central Europe featuring Snétberger Ferenc, Balogh Kálmán and Boban Markovic;
MIES VAN DER ROHE IN AMERICA (2001) editor and director of photography for the video installations: Federal Centre Chicago, Seagrams Building, New York and Farhnsworth House, Plano. Illinois. Exhibition June through September 2001 at Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago) and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal);
LA BASIR (The Kiss) (2000) videographer and editor for video installation by Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Whitney Biennial 2000 Permanent collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Whitney Museum, New York;
JUBA: Masters of Percussive Dance (1998) Director, Co-Producer and Editor (60 minutes/video) PBS National Broadcast; A documentary and performance film about tap dance co-produced with WTTW - Channel 11 (Chicago PBS affiliate);
A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE (1994) - Director and Screenwriter A dramatic film based on the short story by Ernest Hemingway (16mm film, color - 1994) Co-produced by The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and The Longmeadow Foundation. Broadcast by The Independent Channel; winner of “The Bob Award” from WTTW for best independent narrative film;
THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI (1991) Director, Editor and Screenwriter (video/film - 60 min.) An examination of the decision to use the first nuclear weapons; a video that combines dramatizations, archival materials and interviews with Gar Alperovitz, John Donner, Robert Lifton and the noted physicist Phillip Morrison;
INTRIGUE IN THE MIDDLE EAST (1991) Director, Editor and Screenwriter (video/film - 110 min.) Beginning with the period immediately preceding World War II, the documentary presents an historical overview of events leading up to the Gulf War and the continuing conflicts in Israel and Palestine including interviews with Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and Former Ambassador Patrick Murphy National Broadcast Free Speech TV;
NO TIME TO LOSE Co-director and co-producer (beta video - 17 min.) documentary film about children living in the inner cities in New York State; broadcast WNET/PBS, New York City 1990;
WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN? Contributing Editor (16mm - 90 min.) A feature length documentary about the social and political implications of the killing of Vincent Chin by unemployed autoworkers in Detroit in 1982 1988 national broadcast PBS; ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION, LONDON FILM FESTIVAL Produced by Third World Newsreel, The Film News Now Foundation and Detroit Public Television 1988;
MISSISSIPPI TRIANGLE (co-director and editor) This is an intimate portrait of life in the Mississippi Delta, where Chinese, African Americans and whites live in a complex world of cotton, labor, and racial conflict. The history of the Chinese community, originally brought to the South to work on cotton plantations after the Civil War, is framed against the harsh realities of civil rights, religion, politics, and class in the South. Rare historical footage and interviews of Delta residents are combined to create this unprecedented document of inter-ethnic relations in the American South. A Third World Newsreel production. 1984, Berlin International Film Festival.