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Campus News
     
Your faculty and staff news since 1965
Special Spotlight Issue:  April 22, 2002

Konefsky finds passion in people
Movie maker connects with community

By Brian Lucero

Bryan KonefskyUNM Media Arts instructor Bryan Konefsky abandoned the tag “artist” for “cultural worker.”

“I believe that the title of artist is burdened with the connotation of a genius or a primary individual,” he says. “While cultural worker gives you a sense of someone who is trying to foster a community.”

As an adjunct professor, Konefsky works hard to bring communities together. In 1996, Ira Jaffe, chair of media arts, gave him the opportunity to play an intricate part in the department. As an instructor, Konefsky tries to show his students the brilliance of personal cinema, noting that people don’t have to be brought together by a movie made on a multi-million dollar budget or by a big time director.

“Anybody can make a movie,” Konefsky says. “It’s a matter of telling your story. Hollywood doesn’t need to be the only venue that tells our stories. Why can’t we tell our own stories?”

Konefsky has been telling his stories since the late ’80s when he switched his focus from painting to the moving image arts.

“I sold my set of paint and brushes for my first camera because I felt that when I hung a picture in an art gallery, there was a huge sense of disconnection between me and my audience,” he says. “I wanted to connect to them in a more intimate and personal way.”

Now his camera collection serves as his paint brushes, each recording the world in its own way to bring people together all over the world. He plans to take his personal cinematic movies on tour through several venues in the United States, Canada and Europe.

“I like traveling to connect one-on-one with human beings in the international community of movie making,” he says.

His passion for forming connections also transcends to his students. He tries to bring back to his students all the knowledge and experience he gathers on his travels.

Unlike many movie makers, it is obvious that Konefsky’s main goal is not to be noticed in Hollywood, but rather to continue an exploration in this work to bring people closer together with the hope they might realize the value of their own voices and the power of their creative vision.