John Sanborn Movies

In the year 2023, following the death of Randy Rose, the lead singer of The Residents, his son Randy Junior discovers that his father's ashes have...

A video memoir in which artist John Sanborn explores the seismic artistic upheaval wrought by three great artists: John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, and Nam...

This documentary is a history of The Residents hosted by Penn & Teller. It contains excerpts from most of their videos and some are in their complete...

A boy travels through the world of M.C. Escher.

A short survey of the small-gauge narrative film, beginning with the Kuchars' Sylvia's Promise (1962). Primarily focused on East Coast artists, the...

Short film by John Sanborn

Set in the American Midwest, Perfect Lives is “about” bank robbery, cocktail lounges, geriatric love, adolescent elopement, the changing...

With HOW TO FLY, Bowes abandoned plot entirely, finding other forms of structure. He wanted to show that stories do not have to obsessively organize...

Abstract video art by John Sanborn and Dean Winkler. Dedicated to Ed Emshwiller.

A live adaptation of art rock band The Residents' 1988 concept album about a disgraced evangelist and his obsession with gender-fluid conjoined twins.

Director John Sanborn attends his 40th high school reunion with a film crew to interview former classmates and gain a measure of closure on some...

A sequel to Ear to the Ground, Ear-Responsibility finds avant-garde percussionist David Van Tieghem roaming the streets of New York, discovering the...

Abstract video art set to the music of Philip Glass.

"Awakening from the 20th Century" contends with the collision between the actual and the virtual in the city of San Francisco. "Is life becoming...

In Ear to the Ground, David Van Tieghem uses the city of Manhattan as his musical instrument, playing the surfaces of the sidewalks, buildings and...

Employing single-frame edits from broadcast television, the artists construct a rapid-fire media barrage of sound and image.

Short by John Sanborn

Endance is a witty take-off of a public television documentary. Choreographer Tim Buckley solemnly discusses his life, work, and decision to stop...

Buried inside the epic American opera for television, “Perfect Lives” are the boogie-woogie lessons being sold by Buddy to untalented...

The Surrealist, "Exquisite Corpse" was a French Café parlor game. "Exquisite Moving Corpse" is more of an artist chain letter. 60 artists...