Results You Can't Refuse: Celebrating 30 Years of BB Optics

Cultural Writing. RESULTS YOU CAN'T REFUSE: CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF BB OPTICS reveals the story behind BB Optics, the one-man film laboratory of filmmaker and preservationist Bill Brand, opened in 1976. This book includes an article by Brand and small-gauge guru Toni Treadway on how to take better archival care of film works; it offers history, instruction, and valuable technical information. This cross-section of Brand's work, including the process of making and preserving it, is a perfect addition to any film artist's library.

William Brand, professor of film and photography, holds a B.A. in art from Antioch College and an M.F.A. in film from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and Hunter College and was awarded the MacArthur Chair at Hampshire for the years 1994-97. Since 2005 he has taught film restoration in the graduate Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program at New York University. Since 1973, his films, videos and installations have exhibited extensively in the U.S. and abroad in museums, microcinemas, and on television. They have been featured at major film festivals including the Berlin Film Festival and New Directors/ New Films Festival. The work is written about in cinema history books and in articles by Erik Barnouw, David James, Janet Maslin, Paul Arthur, J. Hoberman, B. Ruby Rich, and Noel Carroll, among others. His 1981 Masstransiscope, a mural installed in the subway system of New York City which is animated by the movement of passing trains, is a widely regarded work of public art. In 1973 he founded Chicago Filmmakers, the showcase and workshop and until 1991 served on the Board of Directors of the Collective for Living Cinema in New York City. He is currently an Artistic Director of Parabola Arts Foundation which he co-found in 1981. Since 1976 he has operated BB Optics, an optical printing service specializing in 8mm blow-ups and archival preservation. In 2006 he was named an Anthology Film Archives film preservation honoree and given a month long retrospective to celebrate BB Optics' 30th anniversary.