2025–2026
USA
Mike Stoltz (USA) is a moving image artist born in Miami in 1981. He holds a BA in English from the University of Florida and an MFA in film and video from the California Institute of the Arts. His practice is dictated by process, working directly with images, sound, and time to reexamine the familiar, the communal, and the medium itself. This manifests on screen in instances of engaging with performers from behind the camera, chance-based interventions in landscape, moving the camera in concert with architectural structures, and directly addressing the audience. Physicality continues in the process of editing the pieces, cutting directly on 16mm film and composing the soundtracks from tape music and live sound generated with collaborators. Stoltz’s 16mm films and videos have screened internationally at venues including Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Courtisane, Media City Film Festival, Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival, Light Field, International Film Festival Rotterdam, REDCAT, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the Made in L.A. 2025 Biennial at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (October 2025–March 2026). His work is in the collections of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Film Archive, California Institute of the Arts, and other institutions. He has programmed film screenings for Magic Lantern Cinema, the Echo Park Film Center, VISIONS, the Arroyo Seco Cine Club, and Now Instant Image Hall. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
“Stoltz shakes and dislocates audio and image with volume and pitch variations, editing the 16mm film in camera, varying the focus and the shot length of every frame, shifting background and foreground, turning and spinning the camera hand-held positions… The filmmaker’s dance transforms abstraction into personal experience. He is an active agent of the surrounding world, and of the opportunities that open and close before us.” —Mónica Savirón
Q & A WITH THE ARTIST AT LA FILMFORUM
VISIONARY FILM — LISTENING TO THE SPACE #3: MIKE STOLTZ
INCITE! JOURNAL — RE-IMAGINED SPACE: AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE STOLTZ