DAVID SCOTT KESSLER
Philadelphia, PA
Born, Union, NJ
About
Filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist
Based in Philadelphia
Experimental documentary work centered on ecology, attention, and place
GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS
(Support for long-term, place-based, and interdisciplinary projects)
Pew Center for Arts and Heritage — Individual Artist Fellowship, 2015
Pew Residency Fellowship, 2020
Flaherty Film Seminar Fellowship, 2015
Creative Capital - On Our Radar, 2015
RESIDENCIES
(Ecological research, experimental film production, and site-responsive work)
2026 — Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, Oregon
2023 — Fogo Island Arts, Newfoundland
2018 — Absolute Art Space, Tainan, Taiwan
2016 — Officina Stamperia del Notaio Residency, Tusa, Sicily
2013 — NES Artist Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & SCREENINGS
(Including live-scored, outdoor, and site-specific presentations)
2026 — Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Open Video Call — Welcome to Low-Level Radioactive Storage Site
2026 — Automat Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Room to Roam — screening The Peasants Shouldn’t Know How Good It Is
2023 — Stockton University Gallery, NJ
A Pinelands Portrait — Eleven Fires — dual-channel installation
2022 — Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA
The Pine Barrens Project — artist, producer, curator
The Pine Barrens — live-scored screening with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra
Eleven Fires — Site-responsive installation
2021 — Fotografiska, NYC
The Pine Barrens — live-scored screening in support of Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest
2019 — Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
Rooftop Films Summer Series — outdoor, live-scored screening of The Pine Barrens
2019 — Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
20/92 Video Festival — Amis Fishing at Night — Site-responsive installation
2018 — Tainan University of Technology, Taiwan
The Compound Eye of Spirit and Phenomenon — Interdisciplinary exhibition and artist talk
2017 — Harun Farocki Institute, Berlin, Germany
Farocki Now – A Temporary Academy
2017 — Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival, PA
Short film Nine Fires
2017 — Princeton Environmental Film Festival, NJ
Feature film The Pine Barrens — live performances with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra
2017 — Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
Polaris: Northern Explorations in Contemporary Art — etching included in Due North portfolio
2017 — Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
Due South — short film installation The Peasants Shouldn’t Know How Good It Is
2016 — Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Open Video Call — Six Fires
2015 — Rooftop Films Summer Series, Brooklyn, NY
Short film Lopapeysa
2015 — Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
The Usable Earth — curated by Kristen Neville Taylor
2015 — Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Free For All: Lord Whimsy Drops Dead — animator/collaborator (Allen Crawford, Ben Warfield)
2014 — Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
Due North — four-channel 100-ft video installation Lopi; short film Lopapeysa
2013 — Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland
1759 — video installation The Voice of the Oracle of Neptune
2010 — Dilworth Plaza, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Underground — video installation The Voice of the Oracle of Neptune
2008 — International House Philadelphia, PA
Shadow World — solo video & painting installation
2007 — Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Public screening of documentary If You Break The Skin You Must Come In: The Zoe Strauss Documentary
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
(Public-facing interdisciplinary ecological programming)2022 — The Pine Barrens Project, Academy of Natural Sciences
Curator, producer — interdisciplinary exhibition combining film, field research, and ecological documentation.
2016 & 2019 — Middle of Nowhere, Whitesbog Preservation Trust
Curator and Producer — interdisciplinary ecological art, music, and film event exploring place-based narratives and environmental perception. Co-curated with Kristen Neville Taylor (2019) and Jen Brown (2016).
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
(All films directed, produced, shot, and edited by the artist unless otherwise noted.)
Feature Films
2019 — The Pine Barrens
2007 — If You Break The Skin You Must Come In
Short Films
2025 — Twinning Of Islands
2025 — Welcome To Low Level Radioactive Waste Storage Site
2024 — The Peasants Shouldn’t Know
2023 — Eleven Fires
2014 — Lopapeysa
Music Videos
2013 — I Fell In Love With a Feeling / So Far So Long — Nightlands
2014 — Every Time the Sun Comes Up — Sharon Van Etten
AWARDS (FILM)
Best Documentary — New Jersey Film Festival, 2020
Excellence Award — Veritas Film Festival, 2020
Emerging Filmmaker — Princeton Environmental Film Festival, 2017
Best Documentary — Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival, 2017
SELECTED WRITING & PRESS
Lost in the Pine Barrens: An Essay on Middle of Nowhere, Title Magazine, 2021
New Jersey’s One Million Acres of Undeveloped, Otherworldly Land, Hyperallergic, 2017
Magic In The Pines, Philadelphia Inquirer, cover, 2017
EDUCATION
Montclair University — BFA, 1998–2001
Constantijn Huygens College of the Arts, Kampen, Netherlands — 1997
University of the Arts, Philadelphia — 1996–1997
Parsons School of Design — AAS Illustration, 1994–1995
