Jake Yuzna

Jake Yuzna
Yuzna receiving the Teddy Jury Prize in 2010
Born	Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	2004-present

Jake Yuzna is an American film director, screenwriter, and curator. Their debut feature Open was the first American film to win the Teddy Jury Prize[1][2] at the Berlin Film Festival and in 2005 Yuzna become the youngest recipient of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Although known mainly for their work in film, Yuzna has curated several retrospectives, exhibitions and special projects. In 2010, they founded the first cinema program at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Between 2011 - 2013 they organized the first fellowship, publication and conference to argue nightlife as a form of contemporary art.[3][4][5][6] In addition, Yuzna has authored books on contemporary art, design, and culture as well as contributed to Artforum.[7]

They have also curated the first American retrospectives of artists and filmmakers including Alejandro Jodorowsky,[8] Sion Sono,[9] Gregg Araki,[10] Francois Sagat, and Quentin Crisp.[11] In addition, Yuzna curated the first museum surveys of Metamodernsim,[12] the New French Extremity,[13] and the medium of VHS.[14]

Yuzna is the son of poet Susan Yuzna and nephew to horror film director and producer Brian Yuzna.[15]

Filmography

Year	Film
2004	Between the Boys (short)
2005	Better Left Alone (short)
2010	Open
2017	The Knife - Live At Terminal 5
2021	After America

Awards and honors

• 2005: "Special Jury Award for Artistic Risktaking" from IFP
• 2010: "Teddy Jury Prize" for Open (60th Berlin Film Festival)
• 2010: "Best Narrative Feature" for Open (TLV Festival)
• 2010: "Best Performance" for Morty Diamond in Open (New Fest)
• 2012: Creative Capital Award in Filmmaking
• 2018: "Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award" from the America Film Institute
• 2019: "McKnight Fellowship in Media Artists" from McKnight Foundation and FilmNorth[16]
• 2020: "The Blood List" from British Horror Film Festival^[citation needed]
• 2021: "Guggenheim Fellowship" from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation[17]

Publications

Year	Project
2013	THE FUN: The Social Practice of Nightlife in NYC[18]
2014	NYC Makers[19]
2022	No Joke: Humor as Resistance[20]
2023	Content and Its Discontents[21]

Curation

Year	Project
2010	Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky
2011	The Home Front: American Design Now
2011	François Sagat: The New Leading Man
2011	Sion Sono: The New Poet
2011 - 2013	THE FUN Fellowship in the Social Practice of Nightlife
2012	No Wave Cinema
2012	Argento: Il Cinema Nel Sangue
2012	VHS
2013	It Is Crispin Hellion Glover
2013	After the Museum
2013	Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Quentin Crisp
2013	Without Compromise: The Cinema of William Klein
2013	God Help Me: Gregg Araki
2014	NYC Makers: The 2014 MAD Biennial
2014	Life with Technology: The Cinema of Godfrey Reggio
2015	It's Hard to be Human: The Cinema of Roy Andersson
2015	The Director Must Not Be Credited: 20 Years of Dogme 95
2015	The Unseen Cinema of HR Giger
2015	Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time
2018	Plastic Futures and Premillennial Tensions: 1990s Science Fiction Cinema before a New Millennium
2023	Eve Fowler: A Universal Shudder (co-curated with BF Hall)
2023	Make Sense of This: Visitors Respond to the Walker’s Collection (co-curator)

References

1. "BOMB Magazine — OPEN with Jake Yuzna by Legacy Russell". bombmagazine.org. Archived from the original on 2017-03-21. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
2. Indiewire (6 July 2010). "Outfest 4 in Focus: "Open" Director Jake Yuzna On His Queer Aesthetic | IndieWire". www.indiewire.com. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
3. Vartanian, Hrag (11 April 2012). "Putting the FUN in New York Nightlife". hyperallergic. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
4. Frisicano, Andrew; Theeboom, Sarah. "Fall in New York: three NYC photo books; the Queens Museum reopens". Time Out New York. Time Out Inc. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
5. Corona, Victor P. "Starry Nightlife at MAD Museum". NY Art Beat. New York Art Beat. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
6. "Jake Yuzna brings FUN to the Museum of Arts & Design". Time Out New York. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
7. "Jake Yuzna". Artforum. 2021-07-13. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
8. "Alejandro Jodorowsky: Blood into Gold". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
9. "Sion Sono". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
10. "God Help Me: Gregg Araki". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
11. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Quentin Crisp". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
12. "No More Modern : Notes on Metamodernism". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
13. "J'Adore Violence: Cinema of the New French Extremity". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
14. "VHS". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
15. "Open Director Jake Yuzna on Sexuality, the Myth of Queer Cinema, and Horror Fandom - The L Magazine". www.thelmagazine.com. 15 November 2010. Archived from the original on 2023-02-09. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
16. "Announcing the 2019 McKnight Media Artist Fellows | FilmNorth". 4 June 2019. Archived from the original on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
17. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Jake Yuzna".
18. Yuzna, Jake (26 November 2013). The Fun. powerHouse Books. ISBN 9781576876596.
19. Yuzna, Jake; Tillio, Samantha (2014). NYC Makers: The MAD Makers Biennial. Museum of Arts and Design. ISBN 978-1890385293.
20. Yuzna, Jake (2022). "No Joke: Humor as Resistance". Walker Reader. Minneapolis, MN USA: Walker Art Center. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
21. Yuzna, Jake (2022). "Content and Its Discontents". Walker Reader. Minneapolis, MN USA: Walker Art Center. Retrieved 3 December 2023.

External links

• Jake Yuzna at IMDb