Pittsburgh Sound + Image Presents: An Evening with Bill Brand

In the domain of film, Brand is widely regarded as a legend in both making his own work and, via his "one-man film laboratory" BB Optics, preserving films by others. What's less known is that Pittsburgh plays an important role in Brand's career. It was while here for a screening of his work at Carnegie Museum of Art that he first learned to use the JK optical printer at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. This novel tool would go on to become inseparable from Brand's work for three decades. In his own films, the optical printer allowed him to create visually complex superimpositions and frames within frames within frames. As a preservationist (a role he inadvertently fell into due to his virtuosic skillset), Brand's mastery of the optical printer made him the go-to person for blowing up 8mm and Super 8 to larger film gauges.