Cy Kuckenbaker received his MFA in film direction from the California Institute of the Arts in 2006, was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in 2004 and served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lithuania from 2000-2002. He is the director of fiction and documentary films that have screened at domestic and international film festivals including MoMA NY, Centre Pompidou Paris, The LAFF, The Vancouver IFF, the Viennale and many more. His experimental videos have been shared broadly online by platforms such as USA Today, The Atlantic magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, Designboom, Journal Du Design and more. In 2013 he received the San Diego Foundation’s Creative Catalyst Grant to work on a one-year project in partnership with the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego. In 2016 his work was featured in a PhotoViz, an artbook publish by Gestatlen and edited by Nicholas Felton that featured cutting edge work in the area of photo visualization. In 2017 he received the San Diego Art Prize. Cy is a full time faculty member at San Diego City College where he teaches film making.
Contact: cysfilm@gmail.com
Art Exhibitions
2018 San Diego: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, La Jolla Historical Society, La Jolla, CA
2018 San Diego Art Prize, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA
2016 Bring Your Own Beamer, San Diego Institute of Art, San Diego, CA
2016 Mass Attack, San Diego Institute of Art, San Diego, CA
2015 Filmatic Festival, UCSD, San Diego, CA
2015 Artfutura, London, Lisbon, Mexico City
2015 New Aesthetic Series / Cologne Short Film Festival, Cologne Germany
2015 Sinking, Sinking, Sinking, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA
2015 Sonance II, University of Missouri – Kansas City Gallery of Art, Kansas City, MO
2010 Old Cameras New Photos, Café Leche, Highland Park, CA
2009 Public Private, Café Leche, Highland Park, CA
Fellowships/Grants
San Diego Foundation, Creative Catalyst Fellowship/MOPA Resident July 2013 - June 2014
Fulbright Fellowship, Filmmaking, Lithuania 2004-2005
Awards
San Diego Art Prize 2017
International Motion Award, American Illustrator American Photographer, 2014
Vimeo Staff Pick, 2015 20 Minutes of Kite Flying Time Collapsed, Director
Vimeo Staff Pick, 2014 Skateboarding Time Collapsed, Director
Vimeo Staff Pick, 2014 One Hour of Surfing Time Collapsed, Director
Vimeo Staff Pick, 2013 Midday Traffic Time Collapsed, Director
Vimeo Staff Pick, 2012 Landings at SD International, Director
Honorable Mention, Animation, 2012 Big Muddy Film Festival, Director
Winner, Best Feature Documentary, 2011 New Jersey IFF, Bush League, Director/Producer
Winner, Best Documentary Short, 2007 Los Angeles Int Film Festival, WOOD, Producer
Reviews/Publications (selected)
2018 Ashley Mackin-Solomon, The Architecture of Four Ecologies’ Exhibit, Los Angeles Times
2018 Linda Alterwitz, ART + SCIENCE: MAGIC: Cy Kuckenbaker, Lenscratch
2016 Nicholas Felton, PHOTOVIZ, Gestalten Books, Berlin
2016 Seth Combs, Video Players, SD CityBeat
2015 Rico Martinez, Long Story Short, Canal + Television, France
2015 Filmmaking Exemption to the Anti-Circumvention Rules, U.S. Copyright Office
2014 Issue #57, Fraction Magazine, Room #4 Baghdad
2014 Josh Smith, Urban Concentrate, SD CityBeat
2013 David Wagner, Artist Turns Rush Hour Into a Rainbow, KPBS News
2013 Staff Writer, Highway Traffic Gets Reorganized by Color in Hypnotic Video, Yahoo News
2013 Cy Kuckenbaker Creates the Ultimate Traffic Patterns Vice Creator’s Project video
2013 Alex Zaragoza, Kuckenbaker wins fellowship with MOPA, SD CityBeat
2012 Ben Mutzebaugh, Video gem: Five hours of planes landing in 25 seconds, USA Today
2012 Staff Writer, Video of the Day: Planes Landing in timelapse, AOL
2012 Staff Writer, Airplane Landings: Short Film by Cy Kuckenbaker, Huffington Post
2012 Kasia Von Baldegg, What if all the Black Friday Flights to San Diego Landed at Once?, Atlantic Magazine
2012 Melissa Knowles, Two Stunning Videos Become Web Sensations, Yahoo News
2010 Robert Nelson, Bush League Film Review, Variety
2006 Robert Abele, Two Countries, but Neither Feels Like Home, Los Angeles Time