Jan
Cannon
began his film career in South Florida
in the early 1970s working on feature, commercial, documentary and industrial
films. His primary experience was as a cameraperson and editor.
In
1981 he moved to Boston,
where he worked for several years as a video editor at Cinemagraphics/Video One
and WGBH.
While in
Boston he discovered pottery and left filmmaking to
become a studio artist for the next twenty years (www.jancannonpottery.com).
During that period he studied ceramics at the
Radcliffe Pottery Studio in Somerville, MA, and traveled extensively throughout Asia studying
ceramics in China, Korea, Japan
and Thailand.
He was an artist-in-residence in Calhoun
College
at Yale
University
and director of the ceramics program at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven,
Connecticut.
In 1993 he established his pottery studio in Charlotte,
Vermont.
He has served on the board of directors for the
Vermont Crafts Council, The Ferrisburgh Artisan’s
Guild and the Shelburne
Art
Center.
In 2005, having become interested in
sustainability issues, Cannon decided to return to making films. Vermont had many groups
and individuals promoting ideas about sustainable living and he felt it was
important that those voices be recorded. Observing that many people still
didn’t understand the challenges posed by over-consumption, climate change and
peak oil, he decided that he wanted to be more actively involved in working for
positive change in the world, especially by using film to educate and promote
ideas of sustainable living.
When Cannon returned to filmmaking, he still had the
sensibility of a studio artist.
During the time he had been away from filmmaking the technology had changed
radically and he was now able to work completely independently in what was
traditionally one of the most collaborative of mediums.
Working independently allowed him to maintain a low profile and achieve
an intimacy on his projects that would otherwise be unachievable with a larger,
more traditional filmmaking approach.
As a studio artist the expression of beauty was always the primary aim of
his work; and it remains so in his work as a filmmaker.
Link to June 28, 2007
Charlotte News profile
