Larry Fessenden / bio
current bio | acting credits | long bio 1997 | "Someone to Watch Award" | press & profiles 1997-2008 | Hi-res photos
BIO 2008
Larry Fessenden is the writer, director and editor of the award-winning art-horror movies HABIT, NO TELLING, and WENDIGO. His most recent film, THE LAST WINTER, starring Ron Perlman, Connie Britton and James Le Gros, premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, was distributed by IFC FirstTake and will be out on dvd through Genius Products July 22.
As a character actor Fessenden has appeared in numerous films, including Neil Jordan’s THE BRAVE ONE, Jim Jarmusch’s BROKEN FLOWERS, Martin Scorsese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, Steve Buscemi's ANIMAL FACTORY, Jim Mickle's MULBERRY STREET, Brad Anderson's SESSION 9, and IMAGINARY HEROES by Dan Harris. Fessenden stars in HABIT, and the Sundance pictures MARGARITA HAPPY HOUR (Ilya Chaiken) and RIVER OF GRASS (Kelly Reichardt).
Fessenden has been a producer on various projects including Kelly Reichardt's WENDY AND LUCY, Ti West's HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, James McKenney's SATAN HATES YOU, JT Petty's BLOOD RED EARTH, Ilya Chaiken’s LIBERTY KID, Douglas Buck’s remake of DePalma’s SISTERS, Jeff Winner's SATELITE and David Gebroe's ZOMBIE HONEYMOON.Under his low budget horror banner ScareFlix, Fessenden has produced Ti West's THE ROOST and TRIGGER MAN, and James Felix McKenney's THE OFF SEASON and AUTOMATONS. 2008 sees the completion of two new Scareflix: Graham Reznick’s I CAN SEE YOU and Glenn McQuaid’s I SELL THE DEAD starring Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Angus Scrimm, and Fessenden.
Fessenden has operated the production company Glass Eye Pix since 1985, with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts.
BIO 2004Fessenden completed WENDIGO in 2001, the third feature in his trilogy of philosophical horror films.
His critically acclaimed vampire film, HABIT, which he wrote, directed, edited, starred in, and distributed theatrically, is available on DVD and VHS. HABIT was nominated for 1998 Spirit Awards for best director and best cinematographer, and won Fessenden the IFP "Someone to Watch Award" in 1997. Fessenden's controversial 1991 feature, NO TELLING, is also available on home video and DVD.
As an actor, Fessenden co-stars in Ilya Chaiken's debut feature, MARGARITA HAPPY HOUR, now in post-production, and can be seen in Martin Scorsese's 1999 picture, BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, and in Steve Buscemi's ANIMAL FACTORY (2000). He plays Palichuck in newcomer Jeff Winner's YOU ARE HERE. He has roles in the Brad Anderson films HAPPY ACCIDENTS (1999) and SESSION 9 (2000).
In 1993, Fessenden served as lead actor, editor and associate producer on Kelly Reichardt's critically acclaimed debut film RIVER OF GRASS (nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards). RIVER OF GRASS was sited in top ten film lists by Paper Magazine, The Boston Globe, NY Daily News, Film Comment, The Village Voice and the San Francisco Guardian.
His array of underground projects from the 80s include THE IMPACT ADDICT VIDEOS (1987) which document the exploits of NYC stunt artists David Leslie; HOLLOW VENUS: DIARY OF A GO-GO DANCER (1989) starring monologist Heather Woodbury; the preposterous two-and-a-half-hour caper epic EXPERIENCED MOVERS (1985), and the cable-access TV show BE MEE TV PRESENTS (1981).
He has played sax and sung in the band JUST DESSERTS since 1987. Their albums "Sentimental War" and "Give Up the Ghost" have charted on College Radio, and JUST DESSERTS has provided soundtrack material for four of Fessenden's films.
Through his company Glass Eye Pix, Fesenden has been involved in the production of recent projects ODE (1999) by Kelly Reichardt, THE GODS OF TIMES SQUARE (1999) by Richard Sandler and SANTA DOMINGO BLUES (2002) by Alex Wolfe.
Since 2003, Fessenden has been involved as producer on numerous projects including James Felix McKenney's THE OFF SEASON, Ti West's THE ROOST, David Gebroe's ZOMBIE HONEYMOON, Jeff Winner's SATELLITE and THE ESCAPE ARTIST from Michael Laurence.
1997 BIO
Working in several mediums, Larry Fessenden is responsible for a slew of raw high energy works that have played art houses, clubs, performance spaces, film festivals, cable TV, and have sold through retail outlets all over the world. These projects have been financed through co-productions with other artists, through schools and organizations, through begging and bartering and through limited funds from a few private investors.
This website chronicles Fessenden's journey as an artist, and at the same time proposes that filmmakers who have not yet reached the dubious status of celebrity see their work as an end in itself. Elemental to this journey is the notion that resourcefullness and the pursuit of truth and community are the aims of the arts. A culture driven by celebrity and cash will only attrophy into stagnation, for its sole purpose is to subvert the audience into a trance.
Fessenden was born into a relatively well to do family in New York City in 1963. When he was ten he made a super8mm movie of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, but it became unclear if the material should be treated as drama or comedy, and the project was abandoned.
He went to prep school in Andover, Massachusetts, where he was primarily an actor until he wrote and directed his own adaptation of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. After being kicked out of school, he made his first major film in super 8mm, the hour long A FACE IN THE CROWD, a philosophical portrait of an artist looking for love and meaning in the indifferent streets of New York. Always the inovator, Fessenden invented the jump-cut, which he later discovered was used by Godard twenty years earlier.
He got into New York University on the strength of three S8mm shorts in 1980. At NYU he was drawn to the video department where the curriculum for the new medium was undefined. His first year he made a video feature of an original script entitled HABIT. The following year he co-produced, wrote and performed in a Cable TV series--launched in one of the first years public access was made available--called BE MEE TV PRESENTS, which won the NYU video award.
For the next three years he worked on a feature based on a four hour play called EXPERIENCED MOVERS. Working with two crew members, Fessenden shot, directed and edited the epic caper film with a cast of 12 principals.
With the completion of EXPERIENCED MOVERS, Fessenden started Glass Eye Pix through which he served as a video editor and guerrilla producer. As editor he worked for numerous performance artists, non-profit groups, luminaries Richard Avedon, Israel Horovitz and Bill Hickey, as well as the avant-garde theater company Ridge Theater.
In 1985 he met performance artist David Leslie, and the two started a three year collaboration in which Fessenden documented and articulated Leslie's work as the Impact Addict: Live one time only pyrotechnic stunts that celebrated and berated the pop media of Leslie's Southern youth. These videos, THE ROCKET MOVIE, STUNT; A MUSICAL MOTION PICTURE, and THE IMPACT ADDICT VIDEOS, played across the country at museums and performance venues, in film festivals in Berlin, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, and on television on MTV and The Morton Downy Jr Show.
Fessenden meanwhile shot a 16mm featurette, HOLLOW VENUS; DIARY OF A GO-GO DANCER, which he finished on video in 1989. The video played in festivals throughout the world including Rotterdam, Rio De Janeiro, and Montreal.
In 1991 he raised private funds to make a major feature, NO TELLING, with a full crew, produced by Rachael Horovitz. The film, shot in super 16mm and blown up to 35, is a cutting drama about a strained relationship between a woman painter and her husband who experiments on live animals for a living. Shunned by American festivals, it is distributed around the rest of the world as THE FRANKENSTEIN COMPLEX by Largo Entertainment. The U.S. video release is scheduled for 1997.
In 1993, Fessenden returned to acting, playing Lee in Kelly Reichardt's first feature, RIVER OF GRASS. He stayed on as editor and served as associate producer. The film went on to play Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, and was released by Strand to critical acclaim.
In 1994 Fessenden wrote, directed, starred in and edited a feature remake of his 1981 video HABIT. Shot with a small crew reminiscent of his earlier films, the film has gone on to play Film Festivals in the U.S. and Europe. HABIT will be released in the Fall of '97.
Since 1977, Fessenden has enjoyed a musical collaboration with songwriter Tom Laverack; they have recorded six album length song collections culminating with SENTIMENTAL WAR, their 17 song lp as the band Just Desserts. Vinyl in a digital age.
Fessenden's approach to film and music combines spontaneity with formalism. The theme common to all the films is the clash between hope and reality: the existential crisis of modern man, the devastating loneliness of a human-centric world, and the search for spiritual redemption in the face of godlessness. The unreconcileable disparity between idealism and truth.
Fessenden says: "These heavy themes I seek out in the aesthetic of the genre film, in particular the horror film, always the most subversive and psychologically raw genre throughout film history."
Fessenden continues to support other filmmakers by making what recources he has aquired available to them, most recently to Ira Sach's debut feature THE DELTA, and Eric Ogden's short film THESE HILLS.
On March 22nd 1997, the day before his 34th birthday, Fessenden was awarded the "Someone to Watch Award", given annually to a "filmmaker of unique vision who has not yet recieved recognition."
