User:Mark Woodcock

Mark Woodcock (born 1943, Boston, Mass.) is an American filmmaker, writer and videographer best known for Two American Audiences — a compilation film he edited while at Leacock-Pennebaker, Inc. in the late 1960s. The 40-minute film combines a discussion between French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard and New York University film students, intercut with scenes from Godard's feature La Chinoise, (which Woodcock had subtitled for its U.S. release by the company).

Reviewing the premiere in Lincoln Center's Philharmonic Hall in December, 1968, New York Times critic Donal Henahan dubbed Two American Audiences the "more absorbing" film of the evening, with the clips from La Chinoise providing "often-brilliant comment" on the discussion. (Another Godard feature film on the May 1968 events in France that also premiered that evening, A Movie Like Any Other, was booed when the audience couldn't hear the simultaneous English translation in the cavernous hall.) A print of the documentary was presented to Henri Langlois at the Cinémathèque Française in 1969 and the film is distributed by Pennebaker Hegedus Films.

Woodcock continued to work with cinema-verite pioneers D.A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock until 1971, receiving credits for Camera (Town Bloody Hall), Sound (Original Cast Album: Company) and Production (Sweet Toronto). There followed a decade of freelance work, including Camera on American Art in the 1960s, The New York School and Andy Warhol for Michael Blackwood Productions; Writer and/or Editor on more than a score of episodes for Time-Life Films' Wild, Wild World of Animals and Other People, Other Places series; and Writer on The Africans: Making Up for Lost Time and Faces of Japan: The Sacred Land, for Jonathan Donald Productions.

Inspired by a postgraduate year at the University of Algiers, Algeria (1966-67), Woodcock returned in the mid-1970s to make Report from World 3, a feature-length documentary funded by an Individual Grant from The National Endowment for the Arts. A snapshot in time that looks back at unresolved issues and missed chances in one third world country's struggle for independence and development, the film challenged American audiences to look with fresh eyes at a part of the world few had visited. Screened at several film and university events in the late 1970s, a digitally-enhanced version of the film premiered at The Coffee House, a New York social club, in March, 2016.

In 1979, Woodcock wrote and edited The Story of a Village and a War, a 25-minute version of a longer film by Lebanese filmmaker, Maroun Bagdadi. The film was commissioned by Ghassan Tueni, then Lebanon's permanent representative to the United Nations, and was the first film to be entered into debate in the U.N. Security Council.

In 1986, Woodcock wrote the script for Harvard University's 350th Anniversary stadium event, produced by Tommy Walker. Since 1989 he has worked in communications at IBM as a writer and videographer, serving as the company’s Think magazine editor from 1996 to 1998.

Woodcock has a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard College and an M.A. in Political Science from the Graduate Center, CUNY where his research focused on the Middle East and international relations, particularly between the West and developing world. Fluent in French and with a reading knowledge of Arabic, he has lived in France, Lebanon and Algeria and now resides in New York City. He has dubbed his style of film creation "organic video" (TM) because he produces, writes and directs his creations and also shoots, edits and distributes them. Current projects include documentary travelogues based on footage he shot recently in Cuba, Myanmar and Iran.

References

Henahan, Donal, "BOOS GREET FILM BY GODARD HERE; English Soundtrack Added to French Irks Audience," New York Times, Dec. 30, 1968.

Beattie, Keith, D.A. Pennebaker, University of Illinois Press, 2011, pp. 69, 75, 159.

Rudavsky, Shari, "From the Olympics to Harvard" – Harvard Crimson, Aug. 8, 1986, article on the university's 350th anniversary celebration.