Richard Myers

"Richard Myers has always lived in Massillon, and Kent, Ohio. Since 1960 his films have synthesized his own dream world with that of America's collective unconscious, creating films that, while deeply personal and 'site-specific,' nevertheless resonate within the larger American landscape.

"Myers' films often times depict journeys to places that seem close by, but that virtually explore vast distances within the terrain of dreams and fantasies. His films are like reconnaissance tours through middle America, melancholic searches for something - an object, an idea, a person, a feeling. And the milieu of his films is often that of the carnival, the medicine show, or the movie theater.

"Myers started out as a painter, printmaker and photographer. As he puts it, 'What excited me most about film was the idea that it could all be done by one person, that he or she could do everything: conceive of the idea, shoot the film, make the sets, edit the film, do the sound, etc. Film allowed me to do all these things, and 'paint' images from my dreams, and personal memory.' For Myers, 'film is poetry, painting, and photography, all in one.'

"His first film, THE PATH, established his 'palette.' 'THE PATH, was a short silent film based on a dream,' Myers explains. 'I tried to direct the viewer through forms and substances, rather than with narrative and story. I thought of the film as a myth, - myth as an intermediate and indispensable stage between conscious and unconscious cognition.

The film visually and rhythmically evolved from unconscious direction, and most of my subsequent films have done the same.'

"Few American filmmakers equal Myers in breadth of work and perseverance of vision, built upon self-examination and a deep love of cinema. In articulating his own reality, his own dreams, Myers has created a body of work that constitutes one of the outstanding achievements in American filmmaking." - Ruth Bradley

http://www.richardmyersfilms.com/