Fred Baker (filmmaker)
Fred Baker (born July 26, 1932 in Los Angeles , † June 5, 2011 in New York City ) was an American filmmaker , director , screenwriter , producer and actor .
Life
Baker began his career as a stage actor; In 1952 he starred in Mary Chase's comedy Bernardine on Broadway . After three years of military service in the US Army, which he served in Korea and Europe, he starred in three films that were shot in Germany for US television, including the television series Fire One , in which Peter Beauvais and Reinhard Glemnitz also played participated. After returning to New York, he had character roles in numerous Broadway and touring productions.
Eventually he began directing off-Broadway plays and touring theater companies, including a. Henry Fonda , Faye Dunaway , Burgess Meredith , Raymond Burr , Alexis Smith , Barbara Bel Geddes , Michael Rennie and Rod Steiger participated. In the mid-1960s he worked for Channel 13 on the non-commercial broadcaster WNET Public Broadcasting.
Baker was a huge dance and jazz fan; so these were also the subject of his first short film On the Sound (1962). He asked Charles Mingus if he would like to work on the soundtrack of this film project, but the latter declined and referred him to Gigi Gryce , who then contributed the music for this eight-minute film. In the film, which are Martha Graham Dancers Donald McKayle, Mary Hinkson and Matt Turney to see. The film received the Golden Eagle Award in the USA in 1963 and was shown at international film festivals , the Edinburgh Festival , the Berlinale and the Venice Biennale .
Baker was part of the group of independent experimental and underground filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s who participated in films such as Events (1970), the documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton about African American activist Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party in Illinois (1971), and White Trash (1992) directed or produced. He also produced Gillo Pontecorvo's film Battle for Algiers (1966). Baker was a longtime friend of Lenny Bruce , whom he portrayed in his 1972 documentary Lenny Bruce Without Tears .
With his wife Barbara he founded FBFVCO , the Fred Baker Film & Video Company , in the 1970s , in the feature films such as Jean Charles Tacchella's Cousin, Cousin (1975), Luchino Visconti's The Innocence (1976), David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977) and Marco Ferreris completely normal crazy (1981) were evicted. In 2003 he appeared again as an actor in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America . In 2008, the Baker-produced biopic Assata aka Joanne Chesimard premiered at the San Diego Black Film Festival , in the lead role of the activist Assata Shakur ; the music came from the jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove .
In October 2010, Baker began writing the non-fiction novel- style Slink blog . Fred Baker is not to be confused with the British-Austrian filmmaker and producer Frederick Baker (1965-2020).
Filmography (selection)
- 1962: On the Sound (direction, production)
- 1966: Battle of Algiers (executive producer, uncredited)
- 1970: Events (direction, production)
- 1971: The Murder of Fred Hampton (executive producer, uncredited)
- 1972: Lenny Bruce Without Tears (Director)
- 1975: Room Service 75 (Director, Screenplay)
- 1977: Eraserhead (executive producer, uncredited)
- 1988–89: Jazzmasters (TV series, director)
- 1992: White Trash (Director)
- 2008: Assata aka Joanne Chesimard (director, producer)
Web links
- Fred Baker in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fire One. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c Brief portrait ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Film at Daily Motion ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fred Baker Films - Assata ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist (2007)
- ↑ Obituary
- ↑ jazzontherecord
Remarks
- ↑ Gigi Gryce recorded the music in 1960 at Bell Sound Studio, New York City with Richard Williams (trumpet), Eddie Costa (vibraphone), Richard Wyands (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Mickey Roker (drums). The recordings of Gigi Gryce Orch-tette appeared on the album Reminiscin ' at Mercury Records ; see. Mercury Records Discography 1960
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Baker, Fred |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American filmmaker, director, screenwriter, film producer, and actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 26, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | los Angeles |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 5, 2011 |
| Place of death | New York City |