https://joelwanek.com/films daily 0.75 2025-06-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537517967457-DVE2J805P53GTF7TYHC3/image-asset.png Film - Heart of Durham (2011/13min/video) Chance encounters at a bus station in the American South hint at the city's complex history and help reveal what cannot be seen. AWARDS Best Video, International Student Competition – Images Festival, 2013 SCREENINGS 2013 5th La Nuit De L'Instant – Marseilles 2013 Carrack Modern Art - Durham, NC 2013 Durham Station - Durham, NC 2013 26th Images Festival - Toronto 2012 Daylight Project Space, Daylight Magazine - Hillsborough, NC 2012 Berlin International Directors Lounge - Berlin 2012 ICDOCS International Film Festival - Iowa City 2012 WNDX Festival of Film and Video Art - Winnipeg 2012 Antimatter Film Festival - Victoria, BC https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1546999012309-TV8VZYZMYTDARIAY98EE/image-asset.jpeg Film SUN SONG (2013/Digital/15min/Silent) Cinematography and Direction by Joel Wanek Grand Prize, International Competition - Internationales Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, 2014 Best Short Film - ICDOCS International Film Festival, 2014 Award for Best Cinematography - Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2014 Third Prize - Media City Film Festival, 2014 Prix de la Competition Internationale - Festival Des Cinemas Differents et Experimentaux de Paris, 2014 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1591387124700-L5GW4HG7XUNKPXXQAVJT/QEYS.png Film https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1682635205579-S4CZYWQZGLQ4VM7126GF/passing_through_title.png Film https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1585118411784-7DRLYC8AH3JMRR7P628V/image-asset.png Film - PHASE SPACE (trailer) Phase Space (2021/15min/video) There are other worlds they have not told you of. They wish to speak to you. - Sun Ra An experiment into the immaterial possibilities of sound and image, Phase Space reimagines the natural tidal rhythms of downtown Oakland's Lake Merrit (technically not a lake but a tidal slough which has a natural ebb and flow) as a transformational force and the banks along the lake as a site of divinational refuge for those that gather there. “In Phase Space, the immersion in a world within another, bodies that contemplate, a study of light, shapes, textures, sounds and invisible matters in a community that forms in the usually lively Lake Merritt, in Oakland, turned, in the film, into a multi-species refuge.” - Ana Siqueira, Fest Curtas Belo Horizonte https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1743527805721-OT16RCURAIOHSIKXLIZF/2-Pumpkin.jpg Film - Sun Song trailer (2013/15min/color/silent) A poetic journey from the darkness of early dawn into the brightness of the midday sun in the American South. Filmed entirely on the number 16 bus route in Durham, North Carolina over the course of six months, Sun Song is a celebration of light and a meditation on leaving. Distributed worldwide by MUBI. “...the final three minutes of Sun Song are as exciting and as impeccably edited as anything I’ve seen in years. It’s the most radical depiction of space travel since the highway scene in Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972)! That Wanek was able to produce such a mature, surprising, and deeply human piece so early in his filmmaking career gives me great hope.” Sheer Playfulness and Deadly Seriousness, Senses of Cinema, by Darren Hughes “There is no end to the trip in Sun Song, but the light's role does eventually have a hand in the conclusion, coming first flickering and then laying upon the seats and a final passenger like a passing revelation of an unspoken blessing." Rotterdam 2014. Deep Breaths, MUBI Notebook, by Daniel Kasman "Inspired by the sounds and philosophy of Sun Ra, this silent workaday evocation of earthbound interstellar travel features working class African American workers as seldom depicted: with grace and poetry." Program Notes for Down To Earth: Extraterrestrials and Heavenly Bodies, Echo Park Film Center, curated by Christopher Harris AWARDS Grand Prize, International Competition - Internationales Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, 2014 Best Short Film - ICDOCS International Film Festival, 2014 Award for Best Cinematography - Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2014 Third Prize - Media City Film Festival, 2014 Prix de la Competition Internationale - Festival Des Cinemas Differents et Experimentaux de Paris, 2014 https://joelwanek.com/interviews daily 0.75 2020-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537515112432-KQK75X95OI0WKWWBSAEW/earl-cross-abdul-wadud-2_416032231_o.jpg Interviews https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537776303555-3ODXX2VU4RVG9OQ0KBHQ/482068669_780x439.jpg Interviews https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537818515184-J90054LM83NB7SCPDEYR/Ewald_SP_I_8x10-1024x807.jpg Interviews https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1539454871235-8TC7TF6UYWSIW6SSBF2K/80808-1441994107-BeyDawoud.jpg Interviews https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1539549153314-Q3WY6N334TJJUB1BV5NW/Screen+Shot+2018-10-14+at+1.20.23+PM.png Interviews https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1591386365011-VYUGM64Z40G76BYZV4BH/Juke%2BJoint%2C%2BCamden%2BNC%2C%2BJune%2B1972%2B-%2BAlex%2BHarrisWEB.jpg Interviews https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537514165203-6ZT5LW5QGVCDCE2XE4YM/AbdulWadud_TomekaReid_byJoelWanekJPG.JPG Interviews Abdul Wadud and Tomeka Reid in Cleveland, November, 2014 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537775469014-61YJIDG996GQCXEKE8CQ/482068669_780x439.jpg Interviews Still from Christopher Harris’ A Willing Suspension of Disbelief, 2014 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537817987902-S1SBAMKIZTJQUQCNO8MR/Ewald_SP_I_8x10-1024x807.jpg Interviews Impostor from American Alphabets, 1997-2005 by Wendy Ewald https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1539453296521-7VSQTD0VJ2OJML5F27O1/dawoud.jpg Interviews Toyia, Kelvin and Erica, 1996 by Dawoud Bey courtesy of Bank of America Collection. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1539549737475-996NQJY9URYSIWRF3LWD/tatsu-aoki.png Interviews Tatsu Aoki https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1590612010557-V9FBHYZ7BC15CJWIMW0T/Juke+Joint%2C+Camden+NC%2C+June+1972+-+Alex+HarrisWEB.jpg Interviews Juke Joint, Camden NC, June 1972 by Alex Harris https://joelwanek.com/sound daily 0.75 2026-01-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1577434550738-EHGSTYFYLRXOOOT7HCLN/lake-merritt.jpg Sound https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1578208928276-ARZF24B2QBW57GC1KR92/HWWM-Smaller-text.png Sound https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1620520445172-WZXWGG136QAIHYXWPT97/lightroom1--2.png Sound https://joelwanek.com/photo daily 0.75 2023-03-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537682260375-67U5GVT62GQFTAW1HN1K/joel_wanek017.jpg Photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537683185788-ALBCNCTRA2JUDFEPPOWZ/intersection.j.jpg Photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537687693374-YY87XWEWH4KOYHD4YQSX/LakeMerritt-1-3.jpg Photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537826208723-YRMKLVY4IPWT6IOX5RO5/Trinidad_Lightroom-17.jpg Photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1591386205300-2VX42XXIUCIDBW1CNC6H/IMG_4279.JPG Photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1640422844316-SHML4C4EZVH5VS27SQB7/20210602__DSF0704-1.png Photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1680040879154-8KLU91KEWI7BN4HJL7IQ/_P1M0279.jpg Photo https://joelwanek.com/home-1 daily 1.0 2020-03-08 https://joelwanek.com/about daily 0.75 2020-05-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a7fe72290bcce6593895e04/1537431867966-D6LMHSJX6CK01XUO6M8E/306E3FB9-EFB9-486F-A564-2AE86643A1C7.JPG About https://joelwanek.com/current-cv daily 0.75 2026-01-21