Eli Stonberg
The Masses are pleased to present director Eli Stonberg as the newest addition to our family. Stonberg, an east coaster recently relocated to Los Angeles, has in a very brief period established himself as a director pushing video into uncharted territory by fusing film, music and data coding into a unified whole.
The director’s current project, an interactive video for New York band Au Revoir Simone, is his most ambitious, and maybe best illustrates Stonberg’s vision. It’s for the gorgeous song, “Knight of Wands,” and, when completed, the video will allow viewers to create a handmade, personal clip from the tools that Stonberg and crew have designedHe met Au Revoir Simone after they cut him off in traffic on Hollywood Boulevard. The women smiled and said “Sorry, We’re not from here!” Stonberg waved them in and forgave them — how could he not? Coincidentally (or fatefully), fifteen minutes later they all found themselves at the same party, and soon they were talking videos.
He mentioned a few projects he’d done for Passion Pit and Rio En Medio, and the behind-the-scenes footage he’d shot during the filming of Bjork’s landmark “Wanderlust” video. The resulting short from the Bjork project premiered at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in the spring of 2008, and his footage was also used in a front page New York Times video story. Stonberg’s unreleased video for Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead” was shot during the band’s infancy and may just be the best video that you’ll never get to see.
Stonberg moved to Los Angeles last year, and has become enmeshed in the spirit of the Masses. He recently made the intro title sequence for our friends at Dublab, a short about astral projection that features an ascending, free floating spirit, multi-colored cloud bursts and the hot sounds of Dan Deacon. The video was the intro to Dublab’s Labrat Matinee VI screening at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles. He’s also recently released a kaleidoscopic clip for L.A.-based electronic composer Daedalus. That one includes monocles, binoculars, eyeglasses, telescopes, pretty swirling colors, and the always engaging Daedalus poking away on his monome.
The clip for Rio en Medio’s “The Umbrella,” which premiered on Pitchfork.tv in the fall of 2008, is notable for, among many things, what we believe to be the only video ever to be told from the point of view of a moth. We follow the alien creature as is drifts through desert landscapes while Danielle Stech-Homsy sings her song.
Combined, Eli’s work offers a glimpse inside the imagination of someone who seems tailor-made to enter the Masses. We can’t wait to see where this leads.