Hans Fjellestad is a filmmaker and musician currently based in Los Angeles. Fjellestad's most recent film MOOG, a feature length documentary on synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, was released theatrically in September 2004 to rave reviews and sold out crowds across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and Japan. Stephen Holden of the New York Times dubs MOOG a "compelling documentary portrait" of a "provocative, thoughtful and deeply sympathetic figure" and the London Daily Telegraph calls it "brilliantly inspiring on many levels."
MOOG was an Official Selection at numerous international film festivals including the Rotterdam International Film Festival (Netherlands 2005), Madrid International Film Festival (Spain 2005), Adelaide International Film Festival (Australia 2005), Naples Sintesi Festival (Italy 2005), Belo Horizonte INDIE Film Festival (Brazil 2005), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic 2004), Sheffield International Film Festival (UK 2004), Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (Ireland 2004), Asheville Film Festival (North Carolina 2004), Bergen Ekko Festival (Norway 2004), and Barcelona In-Edit Film Festival (Spain 2004) where the film took home top honors at the Documentary Awards Ceremony. MOOG is distributed by Plexifilm.
Fjellestad's previous film FRONTIER LIFE (2002) is a documentary feature that explores the strangely inventive world of Tijuana, Mexico. Filmmaker Magazine calls the film a "fresh... quick-paced, smartly edited doc that boasts an innovative score." FRONTIER LIFE has screened in theaters across the U.S., Canada, Spain and Mexico with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Council, Centro Cultural Tijuana, and El Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.
FRONTIER LIFE was an Official Selection at the Mexico City International Film Festival (Mexico 2005), Madrid International Festival of Contemporary Art - ARCO (Spain 2005), Barcelona Festival of Contemporary Mexican Art (Spain 2005), Sound Unseen Film & Music Festival (Minneapolis, MN 2003), Northwest Film Forum (Seattle, WA 2003), D.U.M.B.O. Arts Center Art Under the Bridge Festival (Brooklyn, NY 2003), San Antonio Cinefestival (New Mexico 2003), and Calgary International Film Festival (Canada 2002). FRONTIER LIFE is distributed by Third World Newsreel.
Fjellestad is currently writing/directing several upcoming narrative feature films including LORDS OF CHAOS, a story set in the Norwegian Black Metal music scene of the early 1990s. His ambitious new documentary project SYNTH GOD is also in pre-production.
Fjellestad has appeared on NPR "Day to Day", WBAI New York, BBC Radio 4 "Front Row", Canal 22 Mexico, MTV Latin America, ARTE "Kultur", Danmarks Radio "Klassisk", and been featured in the New York Times, Keyboard Magazine, La Prensa, Japan Times, The Wire, Verdens Gang (Norway), International Herald Tribune and the Guardian UK. He has given master classes and lectures at various academic institutions including Columbia University, San Francisco Art Institute, Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos and Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in Mexico City, Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), Center for Research in Computing & the Arts (CRCA) in La Jolla, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Fjellestad co-founded the Trummerflora Collective, and has worked as a curator/producer for the international art initiative, inSite_05.
As a musician Fjellestad has toured and recorded extensively, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with many legendary players in the international experimental music scene. An "innovative musician" (All About Jazz) and "mad scientist of sound" (SLAMM), his music has been described as "unbridled sonic freedom... raw, almost shamanic energy that embodies the true essence of unrestricted music" (XLR8R).
Louise Gray of The Wire writes, "Los Angeles based musician and filmmaker Hans Fjellestad may have earned more column inches recently for his film work than his composition of late, but let's not allow the volume of an off-Hollywood career drown out the quieter tones of a growing and consistently interesting musical opus." His track Abominatron appears on the MOOG soundtrack released on Hollywood Records in September 2004.