Paul Sharits

Denver, Colorado (USA) 1943 – Buffalo, New York (USA) 1993

Trained as a graphic artist and painter, Paul Sharits was an important avant-garde filmmaker who stood out for manipulating his own celluloid in order to create a wide variety of lights and chromatic games, which were fascinating and abstract when projecting them on the screen. His fans hailed these hallucinogenic effects, while his detractors considered them too strident. Sharits also became known for the creation of experimental film groups at major universities, such as the one at Indiana University where he himself studied. Subsequently, he taught and developed a film program for university students at Antioch College.