Ethan Minsker

Ethan H. Minsker (August 25, 1969, born Ethan Hart Minsker) is an American writer, filmmaker, artist, fanzine publisher and founding member of the Antagonist Movement.

After moving to New York City in 1988, Minsker began publishing his first fanzine, East Coast Exchange, which he would continue to produce for the next 20 years. By the mid '90s, Minsker changed the name of the fanzine to Psycho Moto Zine. The fanzine was featured in a youth exhibit at the New Museum of contemporary art. In 1997, Minsker completed his first feature documentary film, "Anything Boys Can Do...," based on obscure women rock and punk bands of New York's Lower East Side. The film would go on to play in more than 50 festivals worldwide. In 2000, Minsker founded the Antagonist Movement, a collective that supports unknown and emerging artists by providing venues and pushing artists to create new works. Concurrently, Minsker began work on a series of three novels based on his life, "Rich Boy Cries For Momma," "Barstool Prophets" and "The Antagonist." In 2008, Minsker completed "This is Berlin Not New York," an award-winning documentary that was featured on Netflix. His work has gained international recognition, including a feature in Vice magazine in France.

Life and career

Early Life and Family

Minsker was born in Boston, MA, followed a year later by his sister, Natasha Minsker, who is currently the Death Penalty Policy Director for the Northern California ACLU. He is the son of Martin David Minsker, who served as one of the lawyers for president Richard Nixon, and Judith E. McCaffrey, former president of the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia. In 1970, the family moved to Washington, D.C. in the neighborhood of Chevy Chase. Minsker was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 5. He was then enrolled at the Kingbury Day School and later The Lab School of Washington D.C., a school for children with learning disabilities. At age 7, his parents divorced. His mother moved to Glover Park in North West Washington. The siblings split their time between both homes. Being frequently placed in a conference room waiting for their father to finish working on a Nixon legal project, Minsker would create stories on copy paper, and with a stapler, make small books and give them to friends and family. Cast out of his peer group for being learning disabled, Minsker gravitated towards D.C's fledgling punk scene. At 15, he was sent to Landmark Preparatory School, a boarding school in Beverly Farms, MA. Traveling into the city of Boston every weekend, he attended his first punk shows at The Rathskeller and Hayden Hall. The following year, Minsker was back in Washington, D.C. after the dean of Landmark told him he was not welcomed to return because his new Mohawk haircut violated the dress code.

Film career

Minsker received his first super 8mm camera at the age of 7 from his grandfather. At 14, after spending the summer earning money by painting the interior of the family home, he bought his first betamax video camera. At the same time, he was learning animation in school. One of his animated shorts played on the local PBS station. At 16 while still in high school, he began attending night classes for drawing and print making at Corcoran College of Art and Design. He would graduate high school as valedictorian. Using the films he made with his friends and the animated shorts from high school and drawings and prints from the Corcoran, at 17 he applied to art school in New York City. At the School of Visual Arts, Minsker spent his first year in the Fine Art department focusing on painting; he then switched to film in his second year. A music video he made for the Washington punk band Desiderata was featured on the independent section on MTV's 120 Minutes. His thesis project Amorosis, a 30 minute, 16 mm narrative film, was a finalist at the New York Film Festival. After graduating with honors, Minsker began working on independent films and music videos as a grip and electric. He also worked on music videos for bands like Notorious BIG, DasFX, Shaba Ranks, Old Dirty Bastards, Wu Tang Clan and many other hip hop and R&B artists. He worked on dozens of The Shooting Gallery productions. By the end of the '90s, Minsker had stopped working on independent productions to focus on his own work. Minsker went to graduate school on a partial scholarship at The New School where he earned a masters in Media Communications.

Anything Boys Can Do... (1996)

Minsker's first 71 minute music documentary is about women in the underground music scene of New York's Lower East Side. Production took Minsker four years. Originally, the film was to be distributed by Film Threat and then Troma. Minsker eventually released the DVD under the Antagonist Movement and sub-distributed via Emphasis Entertainment Group. Many of the locations and bands featured in the film no longer exist. The film was exhibited at Exit Art Gallery and the Brooklyn Museum. The film won several awards and played in 50 film festivals worldwide.

The Soft Hustle (1999-2000)

The 70 minute narrative film is the story of a Lower East Side lowlife who makes a bet for $1,000, which he promptly loses. The film took four years to complete. Minsker and his crew filmed one scene per week until its completion. Real guns were used since it was cheaper then renting or getting the city permits that were needed. The drugs in the Atlantic City scenes were also authentic. The story is based on real events that took place in the bar where Minsker had begun to bartend. Minsker also produced a short film, "The Businessman," coinciding with "The Soft Hustle."

The Stick Up Artists (1999)

Minsker co-wrote the script with Jon Reed. Based on an episode of America's Most Wanted in which two men dressed in their Sunday-best clothes robbed a video store. The script would be selected as a finalist in the Slamdance script writing competition, beating out 1,500 others and placing sixth.

This Is Berlin, Not New York (2008)

This 72 minute feature art documentary is about underground artists making art and friends on the other side of the world. Incorporating new techniques like stop-motion animation, Minsker's film style began to emerge. The film also contains several interviews. Local bands were used to score the soundtrack. The film is sold at places like St. Mark's Bookshop and the Brooklyn Museum of Arts gift shop.

The Dolls of Lisbon (2011)

This 72 minute art documentary features underground artists from the United States, Ecuador, Portugal, and fellow Antagonist Artists in Europe. In this film, Minsker's style progressed into animated sequences of paper cut-outs as well as stop-motion. Interviews of artists in their own studio space are featured throughout the film. The movie was featured as part of a special screening at the Queens Museum of Art in New York City.

Literary career

Minsker went from writing and producing his own fanzines to writing works of fiction and fictionalized memoirs. Minsker has documented his struggle with dyslexia, although writing comes naturally for him. His stories focuses largely on the people, places, music and attitudes of particular iconic neighborhoods and legendary cultural scenes.

East Coast Exchange Fanzine (1988)

A self-published magazine centered around the hardcore and punk scenes of Washington, D.C. and New York City, this fanzine was modeled after fanzines like Flipside and Maximum Rock and Roll. Minsker slowly moved away from covering the underground music scene and into the graphic arts literature by adding illustrations, poetry and up-and-coming writers.

Psycho Moto Zine (1992-2006)

The new incarnation of the fanzine took on a role of supporting young artists. The idea was born from a realization that there are few opportunities for struggling artists and writers to show their works; the fanzine served as a platform for exposure. Minsker's experience with producing this fanzine inspired the formation of the Antagonist Movement.

Rich Boy Cries for Momma (2010)

Fictional Memoir. Rich Boy Cries for Momma is a coming-of-age novel that is set during the period of D.C.’s now legendary hardcore music scene. It follows Minsker's bootprints: the privileged son turned punk rocker. The book is drawn from Minsker's experiences growing up in Washington, D.C. during the '70s and '80s as the son of prominent lawyers. Producing the book through the Antagonist Movement, the emphasis was on creating a piece of art rather than a product. The book features original illustrations by up and coming artists: the cover art is the work of Kevin Cyr and the inside illustrations are by Ted Riederer. In August 2011, Rich Boy Cries for Momma was featured in the art show "I Bleed Black" at the Marianne Boesky Gallery.

Barstool Prophets (2011)

Fictional Memoir. The second in a trilogy series of novels, Barstool Prophets is set in the bars of New York's Lower East Side. Giving fictional accounts of true events, the novel follows the lives of a wild spectrum of characters, narrated by a young writer working in a bar. The story chronicles an iconic neighborhood over a period of 20 years, from its seedy early 1990s to its recent gentrification into a Manhattan hot spot. The cover art is by Dan Krupin and the inside illustrations are by Dan Krupin and Un Lee. This book was produced in the same vein as Minsker's first book, Rich Boy Cries For Momma; it is both a work of art and of literature. In this book, Minsker's literary style is a mixture of Confederacy of Dunces meets Charles Bukowski. Minsker has used his filmmaking pieces to complement the story.

Art career

Antagonist Movement (2000)

Minsker, Sergio Vega and Anders Olson first came up with the concept of the Antagonist Movement while working in a bar on the Lower East Side. They wanted to create an event that would also incorporate their individual passions: art, film, music and writing. The first art show was in the basement of the bar Niagara in January 2000. It featured art by Minsker, Anders Olson and Dima Drjuchin. The owners of the bar asked the group to do this pop-up art event every Thursday for one year. They would end up doing these one-night art shows for more than 11 years, showcasing the works of more than 3,000 up-and-coming artists. The Antagonists added live music to the events, such as Champions of Sound, Dead on a Friday, Vic Ruggiero and many more. Minsker used film to document the larger events of the group held in other cites and overseas. In 2002, the Antagonists began a writers' night on Sunday nights at Black & White Bar. The actor and comedian Jonah Hill was discovered performing at one of these writers' nights. Past hosts of the writers night have included, among others, Bryan Middleton, Richard Allen and Brother Mike Cohen. In 2003, Minsker took over running the Antagonist Movement after Vega and Olson moved on to other projects. The group began working with art directors who would guide the artistic direction of the Movement: gabriel coutu-dumont and Anders Olson (2000–2005)with Ted Riederer taking over the role of artistic director in 2005 to the present. Riederer's other projects include Never Records/

The Resurrectionists (2006)

Minsker assisted Ted Riederer in an art project by creating the video. The video portion was in part funded by the Antagonist Movement. Minsker crewed four cameras as they filmed the destruction of music instruments. Minsker then edited the footage. The completed project was exhibited at PS1 and Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery as well as online and in other locations.

Personal life

Minsker stands 6' with blue eyes and a shaved head. He has many tattoos but most are concealed. He has been know to trade artwork for tattoos. He does not smoke or use drugs and very rarely drinks alcohol. Minsker is married to Un Lee; the two married on August 10, 2008. On April 3, 2011, Minsker and Lee had their first child, a daughter named Blu Leela Minsker.

References

http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2011-interview-with-ethan-minsker/2183 http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/calendar/event/2625 http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0591659/ http://www.riff.it/scheda-film/?id=446

External links

• http://antagonistmovement.com/
• http://theantagonistblog.blogspot.com/