Artists Spotlight: Brian Lindstrom
Brian Lindstrom, filmmaker
Recipient of 1995, 1999, 2006 RACC Project Grants.
I'm a filmmaker living in Portland with my wife, the novelist Cheryl Strayed, and our two young children. I'm fascinated with people who transcend human frailty and other setbacks to discover their truer, better selves, accessing strength and wisdom previously unknown to them. My films attempt to answer the question: How does a person grow?
My most recent film, the feature length documentary Finding Normal, follows long-time addicts straight out of Portland's Hooper Detox as they try to rebuild their lives with the help of Recovery Mentors who have been through the hell of addiction and incarceration and can share their hard-won knowledge of how to get clean and stay clean.
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| From Brian Lindstrom's film, Finding Normal (2007) |
Finding Normal was awarded Best Local Production at Willamette Week's Longbaugh Film Festival, and has had runs at both Cinema 21 and the Hollywood Theatre in Portland. Also, I will be showing the film at Oregon State Penitentiary on August 23, 2007. Even though the screening isn't open to the public, I am pleased it is reaching people behind bars. It will screen at Living Room Theaers, SW 10th & Stark, at 6:30pm on April 4, 2008 and around the country the Spring of 2008. Finding Normal was funded in part by a RACC Project Grant. (Click here to view the trailer for Finding Normal.)
I was born and raised in Portland. I'm a graduate of Parkrose High School, Lewis & Clark College, and Columbia University where I recevied an MFA in directing and screenwriting. I put myself through school with a combination of student loans, work study, scholarships, and working eight summers in a salmon cannery in Alaska.
My films have been broadcast on OPB, PBS and French Television, and are distributed by Pyramid Media and Third World Newsreel. I've received grants from Regional Arts & Culture Council, The Pioneer Fund, New York Mills Cultural Center, The Berni Foundation, and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. Awards include Longbaugh Film Festival, New Line Cinema/Symphony Space, Mature Media and a Telly. Since 1994 I have taught in the Northwest Film Center's Young Filmmakers Program, using video as a tool of empowerment for at-risk youth.
My current projects include a Robert Woods Johnson Foundation-funded documentary following teens going through drug treatment in Texas, Florida and Oregon; and a collaboration with Jim Wilcox and Gary Ellis of Ibex Communications on a documentary about Bo Lozoff and the Prison Ashram Project. Through a collaboration between the Northwest Film Center's Young Filmmakers Program, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Work Systems, Inc., and Department of Community Justice, I'm working with teens on probation to make a documentary about the Pathways job training program.
Contact Information:
website: www.brianlindstromfilms.com
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RACC Staff to Contact
Mary Bauer
Communications Associate
503.823.5426
mbauer@racc.org
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