David Scott Kessler is a visual artist and filmmaker in Philadelphia, PA. He brings his fascination with a sense of place to documentary film, painting, and video installation that explores memory, folklore, and the natural world. Characterized by stillness and hidden moments of magic, his work exudes a curiosity with material, form, and technology as tools for storytelling.
David is a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and Flaherty Film Fellow. In 2016, he founded the arts and music event Middle of Nowhere, where he served as curator and producer.
His work has screened at Rooftop Films and won an Emerging Filmmakers Award from Princeton Environmental Film Festival.
David is currently the director of Studioscopic, an animation and motion graphics production studio. His feature-length documentary The Pine Barrens is available online.
Kessler is available for exhibitions, collaborations, and commissioned animation and VFX projects.
(b.1975, US)
Davidscottkessler.com
dskessler@gmail.com
267-242-4569
Selected Awards and Grants
2020 Fogo Island Arts Residency Fellowship
2017 Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival, Best Documentary “The Pine Barrens”
2017 Princeton Environmental Film Festival, Emerging Filmmakers Award
2015 Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Individual Arts Fellowship
2015 Flaherty Film Seminar, Fellowship
2015 Creative Capital On Our Radar listing of funding finalist projects for “The Pine Barrens”
Selected Exhibitions and Screenings
2022 The Academy of Natural Sciences, “The Pine Barrens” feature film with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra. “Ten Fires” video installation. Curator and Presenter
2021 Fotografiska, “The Pine Barrens” feature film with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra. In conjunction with Maya Lin’s “Ghost Forest”
2019 Rooftop Films Summer Series, “The Pine Barrens” feature film with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra
2019 Middle Of Nowhere II, Whitesbog at Brendan Byrne State Park, feature-film screening with live score, Site-specific group exhibition. Artist, Producer, Co-curator
2017 Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival, “The Pine Barrens” feature-film with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra, winner Best Documentary
2017 “Farocki Now – A Temporary Academy”, Berlin, Germany
2017 Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival, Philadelphia PA, Short Film “Nine Fires”
2017 Bowerbird Presents at The Rotunda, Philadelphia PA, “The Pine Barrens” with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra
2017 Princeton Environmental Film Festival, Princeton University, “The Pine Barrens”
2017 Polaris: Northern Explorations in Contemporary Art, Michener Art Museum, Curated by Kelsey Halliday Johnson, etching part of the Due North Portfolio
2017 Due South, Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington Delaware, Curated by Marianne Bernstein, Short film installation “The Peasants Shouldn’t Know How Good It Is”
2016 Duende Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia PA, Collaboration with Nadia Botello, video and sound installation
2016 Middle Of Nowhere, Whitesbog at Brendan Byrne State Park, feature-film screening with live score, Site-specific group exhibition. Artist, Producer, Co-curator
2016 Open Video Call, The Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia PA, Short film “Six Fires”
2015 It Seemed So Real, Rooftop Film Festival, Brooklyn NY, short film “Lopapeysa”
2015 The Usable Earth, Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, Curated by Kristen Neville Taylor
2015 Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, PA.“Free For All: Lord Whimsy Drops Dead”, animator. collaboration with Allen Crawford and Ben Warfield, video installation, word and music performance
2015 The Noyes Museum; Absecon, NJ. installation, screening performances with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra “The Pine Barrens: selected scenes”
2014 Due North, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA. Group exhibition, four channel, 100ft. video installation “Lopi” and Monitor loop presentation of short film "Lopapeysa"
2014 International House Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA. Film Screening of “Lopapeysa” 15min experimental narrative,
2013 I Fell In Love With a Feeling/So Far So Long Official music videos for Nightlands, Producer/Director/DP/Editor
2013 1759, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland Group exhibition, video installation, “The Voice of the Oracle of Neptune” Animator/Director
2010 The National Museum of American Jewish History Designer & Animator, mapped video projection of building facade for inaugural event. Produced by Klip Collective.
2010 Philadelphia Underground, Philadelphia, PA. Dilworth Plaza, Video Installation, “The Voice Of The Oracle Of Neptune”
2010 Selected Portraits, International House Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Solo exhibition. video & drawing installation
2008 Shadow World, International House Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. Solo Video & Painting Installation
Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, March 2007 “If You Break The Skin You Must Come In: The Zoe Strauss Documentary” Public Screening, Director/DP/Editor
Selected Film Credits
2017 The Pine Barrens - (feature) Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor
2016 The Peasants Shouldn’t Know How Good It Is (short film) Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor
2016 The Hunting Ground (dir. Kirby Dick), additional cinematography
2015 Toe Tag Patrol (HBO documentary, dir. Alan & Susan Raymond), graphics
2015 Horse Day (dir. Mohamed Bourouissa), cinematography
