Bill Santen

Portraiture is the framework for the experimental films of Bill Santen. His practice is divided between filmmaking and songwriting. Often, recorded oral histories, and the documentation of time and place, force a sense of nostalgia—genuine, or constructed—on to the viewer. Santen takes on the role of filmmaker, photographer, and oral historian. Informed by his career as a songwriter and musician, his works act to equally capture and create memory’s shifting relationship.


His projects have been screened, performed, or exhibited in New York at MOMA Learning Center, Queens Museum of Art, Thomas Erben Gallery, and Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery. Abroad, his work has been presented at the Masc Foundation, Vienna, Austria, Wschodnia Gallery, Lodz Poland, and the Overgaden Museum of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2010, Santen was a recipient of a Mildred’s Lane summer fellowship. As the songwriter and musician, birddog (1995-2005), Santen has released five records. 


Courtesy of Sgorbati Projects