Keith Bearden

Keith Bearden

Fellow: Awarded 2008
Field of Study: Film

Competition: US & Canada

Inertia (1991), the fifteen-minute long 16mm film Keith Bearden submitted as his senior thesis for his B.A. in film and television at Evergreen State College, not only earned him the Haas Memorial Communications Scholarship and the Evergreen Foundation Award from that college, but was broadcast on television, applauded in Film Threat and the Seattle Times, and won the "audience favorite" award at the Rainy States Film Festival.

In spite of that early success, Mr. Bearden did not immediately continue with his film work, but instead took a turn as a journalist, although his interviews- with John Sayles, Werner Herzog, Jonathan Demme, to name a few- were largely film related.  He also wrote and produced such TV programs as VH1’s Where Are They Now? and segments of John Pierson’s Split Screen. He won the Writer’s Digest screenplay competition as well.

Raftman’s Razor (2004) marked his return to directing.  Another critical success, Raftman’s Razor has been screened at festivals worldwide, at the Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival, winning the Critic’s Prize in the experimental category; at South by Southwest, taking home the best short film award; and the RES Fest, where it received the Grand Jury Prize; and many others. It has also been aired on French, Canadian, Australian, and U.S. television stations. In 2007, the Museum of Modern Art added it to its permanent collection.  With the support of a 2006 Jerome Foundation Media Arts Fellowship, he completed Train Town (35mm), which uses a model train shop as metaphor for America’s cultural war; it too has been earning accolades and festival invitations.

For his Guggenheim Fellowship, Keith Bearden will be writing, directing, and completing the HD video feature film God Hates Kansas.

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