William E. Jones Selected Short Films

This January is something of a William E. Jones month at the Wexner Center. His video Midcentury is running continuously in The Box, his photographs are featured in the exhibition More American Photographs, and Jones is joining us to present a program of his short films from the past decade.

At the screening, Jones premieres a new work, Actual TV Picture, that he’ll have completed in the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio just days before the screening.

A Massillon, Ohio, native who’s lived in Los Angeles for many years, Jones captures new life from the world’s discarded image banks. Whether he’s reclaiming unused photos from Depression-era Farm Security Administration projects, educational films, or interstitial scenes from gay porn, Jones works with a sort of lost history, obsessively analyzing and reworking his found footage through rigorous formal procedures to create a remarkable hybrid of the forgotten past.

And it’s fitting that this month would be such a tribute to the artist. We’ve had a longer and more dedicated relationship with Jones than any other artist, and through his nearly annual visits to our Film/Video Studio Program, we’ve helped support the creation of many of his works including most of those presented at this screening, which have gone on to be featured everywhere from the Venice Biennale to the Toronto International Film Festival. In addition, the Wexner Center Store is releasing a limited-edition DVD box set of Massillon, Jones’s breakthrough 1991 film, to coincide with Jones's visit. (app. 90 mins., video)

Killed (2009) 2 mins.
The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography (1998) 19 mins.
Film Montages (for Peter Roehr) (2006) 11 mins.
Discrepancy (2008-10) 9 mins.
Berlin Flash Frames (2010) 9 mins.
The Soviet Army Prepares for Action in Afghanistan (2011) 3 mins.
Actual TV Picture (2013) 5 mins.
Shoot Don’t Shoot (2012) 4 mins.