Ian McAlpin

director & cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
editor: Tanya Ager Meillier
music by: Timothy T. Cleary
sound recording: Matt Smerling, David Bedard, Oliver Stoddard
interviews conducted by: Lydia Spinelli & Karen Gaines
thanks to: Samuel Enders, Lydia Spinelli, Karen Gaines, Kathryn Smerling, Matt Smerling, Gracey Stoddard, Oliver Stoddard, David Bedard, Jennifer Gonçalves, Megan Raelson, Timothy T. Cleary, Richard Levengood, Jennifer Judkins, Alexander Meillier

The African Dream Academy provides a free education to over 900 students in Liberia, West Africa. This film was commissioned by the African Dream Academy Foundation to help raise funds for the school. If you can, please donate to support their important work!

director: Ian McAlpin
producers: Martha English, Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Aaron Kovalchik, Ian McAlpin
cinematographer: Aaron Kovalchik
starring: Shelly Mars, Joshua Salvador, Tessa John Connor
production design: Reno Dakota
costume design: Erika Munro

A short film created for Ryuichi Sakamoto's async competition.

director: Joe Posner
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
gaffer: Sean Sheridan
camera assistant: Marcos Herrera
sound recordist: Brian Buckley
producers: Greg T. Gordon & Melissa Bell

director / dp / editor: Ian McAlpin
series creator: Mark Elijah Rosenberg
starring: Kitao Sakurai, Sean Hollihan

For Rooftop Film's 2018 Summer Series, we imagined a day in the life of Rooftop Films' alum directors. You can watch the rest of the series on Rooftop Films's website.

director/cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
producer: Jake Mills Productions
client: Nest Labs

How do you make the invisible visible? Nest Labs installed a 6' acrylic cube in Herald Square to highlight the invisible threat of carbon monoxide. I directed & shot this spot to document the project.

for full 360º experience, best viewed on a phone

executive producer: Nilay Patel
executive producer: Tre Shallowhorn
director: Tom Connors
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin

director & DP: Ian McAlpin
music: Timothy T. Cleary
clothing: Shelly Mars

An experiment in ever-shifting loops — of sound, of sun, of mind — during an Endless Summer Day.

director: Work-Order
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin

director: Work-Order
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
magician: Mark Mitton

director: Alex Meillier
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
camera assistant: Jack Berner
producer: Tanya Ager Meillier

director/cinematographer/editor: Ian McAlpin
original score: Timothy Cleary
additional cinematography: Aaron Kovalchik
additional editing: Justin Zimmerman
producers: Ian McAlpin & Timothy Cleary

The story of the Barn, and how it burnt. Premiering 2015.

Marina Abramović, fully present, discusses her past and future, her life as a nomad, her interest in shamanism, and her institute: The Marina Abramović Foundation for the Preservation of Performance Art. Shot on location in the hollowed out shell of the former theater/tennis court/antique storage facility she purchased to house her Institute, Abramović opens up and discusses love, death, and what it means to be really present in the moment.

client: AnOther Magazine
director: Derek Peck
director of photography: Ian McAlpin
editor: Kavitha Surana
gaffer: Aaron Kovalchik
sound: Richard Levengood

director: Alex Meillier
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
camera assistant: Jack Berner
producer: Tanya Ager Meillier

agency: Laird + Partners
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin

Lupita Nyong’o talks about her early years in the United States and working with director Steve McQueen on 12 Years a Slave. Shot for Vogue's “The Backstory” series.

Challenged by APM's Marketplace to create two videos for their Robots Ate My Jobs series, Joe & I decided to search out the robots we use everyday, but might not think of as robots. Which begs the question, what qualifies as a robot?

directed by Joe Posner & Ian McAlpin
cinematography: Ian McAlpin
animation: Joe Posner & Heather Faye Khan
music: Kelly Pratt

Elizabeth Streb is an extreme action architect. Born to Fly traces the evolution of Streb’s movement philosophy as she pushes herself and her dancers from the ground, to the wall, to the sky. Guided by Streb’s theory of movement – to walk on walls, dive through glass, move so fast you disappear and…fly; the film asks: Can adrenaline be a form of medicine? When does movement become art? Why be a part of it? How do race, gender, sexuality, and class appear on the dancers’ performances, on their bodies?

Premiered at SXSW 2014 - Theatrical release Fall 2014 - borntoflymovie.com

director: Catherine Gund
producer: Tanya Selvaratnam & Catherine Gund
editor: Alexander Meillier

A career highlight: shooting interviews with some of my favorite hip-hop artists, and then THE SCENARIO live at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival.

Pretty much a documentary on how Fort Standard makes their Balancing Blocks.

Directed by Part & Parcel
Director of photography & animation: Ian McAlpin
Sound & Music: Brian Jones

director: Matt Black
client: Mercedes-Benz
producer: Coveteur
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin

Brooklyn-born John Forté was a Grammy-nominated musician in The Fugees at 21 and a federal prison inmate at 26. When his prison sentence was remarkably commuted in 2008, Forté was given a second chance to share his talents with the world. This feature documentary chronicles his concert tour across Russia, a journey of musical and personal discovery. The Russian Winter debuted to critical acclaim at the Tribeca Film Festival 2012.

Directed by: Petter Ringbom
Cinematography: Ian McAlpin & Petter Ringbom
Produced by: Le Castle, Inc.
Creative Producer: Dream Hampton

Featuring: Alina Orlova, Sunsay, Brian Satz, Victor Logachev, Artemy Troitsky, Billy Novik, Zero People, Ryan Vaughn, Patrick Firth & John Forté

The second of two videos for Marketplace's Robots Ate My Jobs series. The talented Max Silvestri interviews a robot of questionable talent... and motive.

directed by Joe Posner & Ian McAlpin
cinematography: Ian McAlpin
starring: Max Silvestri
music: Kelly Pratt
robo linguist: Emma Tsujimoto Cunningham

director: Matt Black
client: Mercedes-Benz
producer: Coveteur
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin

One long shot in the Moscow apartment I lived in with John Forté's band during the filming of the documentary The Russian Winter. With appearances by Alina Orlova, Brian Satz, Ryan Vaughn, Patrick Firth, Dirty Lick-Lick, and Grunge John Orchestra Explosion.

Directed by: Petter Ringbom
Cinematography: Ian McAlpin

Photographer Cass Bird street-casts the real people for her shoots. Each brings his or her own unique energy to the shoot and then Cass orchestrates it all like a conductor of beautiful chaos, which makes my job easy. Shot in Santa Monica, Malibu, & San Pedro, California.

Director: Cass Bird
Cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
Client: Levi's Europe

The Sea Floor Sea Urchin Dance Troupe perform a
Busby Berkeley inspired number to Javelin's hit song,
Soda Popinski!

Official Selection SXSW 2009!

A film-symphony for The Roosevelt Island tram.

Shot on one reel of super-8 film, in camera editing.
Official Selection of the Straight-8 Festival, 2008.

Directed & Shot by Ian McAlpin
Assistance by Purva Amar
Music by Sam Posner

Kyle of Sit & Read re-upholstering a RISOM chair with left-over scraps from a UNIS collection, to be displayed in the UNIS store. As with much of my work with Part & Parcel, a blend of stop-motion animation and observational cinematography.

co-directors: Part & Parcel
cinematographer: Ian McAlpin
music: Garrett Morin

Faustian pacts! Dueling suitors! Diabolical doppelgängers! A re-imagining of the 1913 "grandfather" of German expressionism, The Student of Prague combines silent film aesthetics and the latest in movie-making technology to provide the discerning spectator with a uniquely modern silent film.

Directed by: Ian McAlpin & Spencer Collins
Produced by: Karla Stojakova
Cinematography by: Klaus Fuxjäger

Horror author Hanns Heinz Ewers, excited about the mew medium of moving pictures, wrote a screenplay, "Der Student von Prag." His tale borrowed elements from Faust, Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson," and E. T. A. Hoffman's "The Double." Stellan Rye directed the film in 1913 with Paul Wegener in the title role. Predating Das Kabinett der Dr. Caligari by six-years, Der Student von Prag awed audiences with its trick filming techniques, making it one of the earliest examples of German expressionism. It was subsequently remade twice, in 1926 and 1935, the '26 version starring Caligari's somnambulist Conrad Veidt in the title role.