Video History Project

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Jim Finn

Jim Finn has made a name for himself...thanks to his feeling for irony and his capacity to shape something new from propaganda, news and other historic images. Not to forget his very dry sense of humour" --Rotterdam International Film Festival Jim Finn (b. St. Louis, 1968) is an artist whose films and videos use humor and historical fiction to examine communist ideology, capitalism and revolutionary art practices. His work has screened at festivals, museums, and cinematheques such as Rotterdam International, New York Underground, Edinburgh International, Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, and the Harvard Film Archive. His latest work is a series of feature-length films looking at Marxist ideology.

The first of these, Interkosmos, was called "a retro gust of communist utopianism" by the Village Voice and "charming and fantastic, so full of rare atmospheres" by Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin. Variety called his follow-up film La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo "pure filmmaking legerdemain" and called the performances "astonishing." His latest film The Juche Idea is about a North Korean art residency called which will premiere in 2008. https://www.jimfinn.org

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"Jim Finn." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/jim-finn.

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Summary

Jim Finn (b. St. Louis, 1968) is an artist whose films and videos use humor and historical fiction to examine communist ideology, capitalism and revolutionary art practices; he is noted for his feeling for irony and for shaping new work from propaganda, news and historic images. His work has screened at festivals and institutions including Rotterdam International, New York Underground, Edinburgh International, Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Harvard Film Archive; he is producing a series of feature-length films on Marxist ideology, the first being Interkosmos. Variety called his follow-up La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo pure filmmaking legerdemain and called the performances astonishing; his film The Juche Idea, about a North Korean art residency, will premiere in 2008; http://www.jimfinn.org.

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Last modified 17 June 2011

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