Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present

March 7, 2017 · The Pilot Light · 7:30 p.m.

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Since the early 1960s, Tony Conrad’s films and musical compositions have been the stuff of legend. Conrad was an early member of the Velvet Underground; he toured with Sonic Youth in the ’90s; collaborated with contemporary artists such as Tony Oursler and Mike Kelley; and spent decades re-wiring young minds as a professor and media personality in Buffalo, New York.

Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present places his fifty years of influence at the forefront and explore his profound impact on generations of artists. Combining intimate footage of Tony and his collaborators shot over the last twenty years, his own archive of recordings and films, and interviews with fans and colleagues, the film reveals not only a playful approach to life and art-making but one that is motivated by a deep sense of powerful, political radicalism.

“Following an amiable Conrad around his old turf on NYC’s Lower East Side, to college towns where he conducted charming teaching experiments, to concert venues where he drew crowds of hipsters after an early-’90s rediscovery, Hubby captures an artistic personality that could manifest big ideas without a shred of snobbery, could deflate pomposity while still inviting deep thought.” — The Hollywood Reporter

“At one point in the film, Conrad says, ‘I like the idea of making a lot out of a little,’ and that pretty much sums up his artistic approach. He always packed a lot of intellectual heft into a few rigorous gestures, and the results were usually transcendent. Completely in the Present makes that abundantly clear.” — The Stranger

About the Filmmaker

Tyler Hubby has edited more than 30 documentaries including The Devil and Daniel Johnston, The Great Invisible (SXSW grand jury prize-winner), and Double Take, Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez’s metaphysical essay on the murder of Alfred Hitchcock by his own double. Hubby also edited and co-produced Lost Angels and the punk rock documentary Bad Brains: Band in DC, and served as an additional editor on the Oscar-nominated The Garden and HBO’s Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. He is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied film and photography.