Joseph Long, founder of Very Long Media, is a digital storyteller and neo-mythic documentarian who has left a trail of comedic tears trickling across the United States, and California. He resides in a conclave on Mt. Norway, across the river from Portland, Oregon. He is also learning to sew.
Mr. Long spent numerous years (three), as a production assistant in Portland and Seattle. His irreplaceable assistance was instrumental in the success of many productions, including Lars Von Trier’s feature Dancer in the Dark, Pink Martini’s music video Sympathique, and the Portland phase of Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential Campaign.
An internship and eventual pilot script collaboration with Emmy-award winning writer and filmmaker Jeffrey Townsend helped to firm Long’s commitment to digital cinema. After acceptance into the vanguard Masters in Media Arts Program at the University of Montana, he became enchanted with the creative potential of post-production and threw himself into editing, compositing, motion, and animation. Armed with a fresh set of digital paintbrushes, Long resolved to synthesize his disparate interests: writing, documentaries, folktales, swordfighting, genealogy, family psychopathology, and G.I. Joes.
The resulting short films in his “wildly illustrious career” (his words) speak for themselves. Fan favorite “Eight,” the story of an eight-year old girl’s commitment to becoming the first woman to play in the NBA. Deep underground smash hit “Jim and Bobby,” a 20-minute documentary about a father’s relationship with his druid-metal-singing son. The acclaimed “Ich Liebe Nature,” a blisteringly-tight polemic about the environment, (Long states firmly he is “for it”). And most recently, his genre-creation: “I Am the Longs.”
Mr. Long wrote, produced, edited and guided a creative team through the completion of “I Am the Longs,” a 45-minute film about his experiences as the oldest and most powerful of seven children. Long describes his created genre, the neo-mythic documentary, as being “stories about real people, situations, and dynamics, but that are more about creating personal meaning than the absolute truth - documentary-based stories with hues of ‘interpretive authenticity.’”
Mr. Long’s work has been shown worldwide, although only in North America thus far, and has been featured in events including the Hillsboro International Film Festival, Christopher Coppola’s PAH*FEST Digital Media Festival (for which “Longs” took 1st place in the Features category), and the Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival.
Mr. Long stays busy tending to the Company and to his baby-ish daughter, who is occasionally helpful, but mostly not. She thinks her dad is a genius.
He continues to build Very Long Media into a digital storycreating powerhouse and swears that he will probably never sell out. He loves life with his Swedish wife and Norwegian daughter. In between crafting stories and disciplining employees, he loves to read David Sedaris, swordfight, and bang out music ramblings on his classic black 1928 Remington Sixteen typewriter.
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