Cuyler Ballenger is a contemporary documentary filmmaker and video artist. His works explore connections among addiction, biography, labor and class as well as themes of metanarrative and filmmaking practice. He is from the San Francisco Bay Area. He has a BA in Rhetoric and Film Studies from UC Berkeley. Cuyler started making documentaries in 2013 and has since worked with various network television and online outlets. He also maintains an experimental video art practice. Much of his work is concerned with addiction, substance use disorder and family. Cuyler’s work has been shown on ABC, NBC and Nowness, and has been supported by The Houston Arts Alliance, Lawndale Art Center and Fresh Arts. His television documentary Overdosed was nominated for a Boston/New England Emmy for Best Documentary in 2017.
“Film and video are particularly interesting thing for me to study and teach right now because the forms are so free and new and accessible to anyone with the will to practice. Meanwhile great works from recent and distant past are as relevant and precious as they ever were. I am glad to be returning this summer to teach at the Youth Media Academy. The last year and a half of this wild existence should make for some incredible perspectives, and I look forward to hearing them.”