Former private investigator, Venetian gondolier and touring musician, Steve Elkins has more recently been engaged as a behind-the-scenes writer, producer, director, cinematographer, and editor for various entertainment studios (Marvel, Pixar, Paramount Pictures) and Academy Award-winning directors (Martin Scorsese, Guillermo Del Toro, Barry Jenkins, Robert Zemeckis). His behind-the-scenes cinematography for Michelle Obama's puppet cooking show "Waffles + Mochi" can be seen on Netflix. He has become a sought-after guest lecturer on film and aesthetics internationally, speaking at institutions ranging from the Art Institute of Los Angeles, Chicago School of Professional Psychology, MUTEK International Festival of Digital Creativity (Mexico City), CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (Switzerland), Tuvan State University (Russia) and the San Francisco GLBT History Museum.

Elkins is more widely known as the creator of several ambitious globe-spanning feature documentaries. The most recent - Echoes of the Invisible - premiered at SXSW 2020, where it received the ZEISS Cinematography Award for the “the very best imagery in storytelling.” The same year, SXSW nominated Elkins for the Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award (named after Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys) "in honor of a filmmaker whose work strives to be wholly its own, without regard for norms or desire to conform." The award went to fellow nominee Frank Oz, director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and What About Bob? (1991) who began his career performing the Muppet characters and Yoda in Star Wars.

Elkins' debut feature, The Reach of Resonance, received the “Best Film Essay” award at Montréal’s International Festival Of Films On Art (ArtFIFA) and top prize at Temps d’Images Lisboa (Portugal) “for a film which reflects the importance of arts in human society in the most original way.” Highly sought after at film festivals, universities and art museums, The Reach of Resonance was presented in twenty countries between 2010 and 2015, including screenings at the Louvre (Paris), Harvard University, National Gallery Of Art (Washington D.C.) and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic).

Elkins’ account of being asked to lead a riot in the largest slum of India - The Grammar Of Fire - was published by Warner Books in 2007. His work with Western Arrernte Aborigines is part of a permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Australia. In his spare time, Elkins serves as a film production mentor for at-risk youth in southern California, through the Youth Cinema Project founded by Edward James Olmos. A passion for rare and under-appreciated cinema hailing from countries typically excluded from film history led him to found the Hibbleton Film Series, a weekly event where Elkins introduces and moderates community discussion about cinema from regions such as Iran, Mongolia, Mali, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Tunisia and El Salvador. Gallery exhibitions of his photography continue in Europe and North America. He is a contributing photographer for the Los Angeles Times.

Echoes Of The Invisible (SXSW 2020 Premiere)

Winner of the Zeiss Cinematography Award at the SXSW 2020 Film Festival and 1st Jury Prize at the Global Tourism Film Festival, Steve Elkins' second feature documentary ECHOES OF THE INVISIBLE turns its lens onto explorers who are pushing the human body and technology beyond known limits in the most extreme environments on Earth. It follows Al Arnold, a blind man running through the deadly deserts of Death Valley; Rachel Sussman, a photographer capturing photographs of the oldest living organisms; Paul Salopek, a journalist walking across the world in the footsteps of the earliest human migrations; and scientists building machines to look back nearly to the beginning of time. These individuals are linked by their search for the fabric of our interconnectedness before it is lost in the noise of our distracted and divided world.

Cineglobe Film Festival (Switzerland) And Saudi Film Festival (Saudi Arabia)

After premiering at South By Southwest (Austin, Texas), ECHOES OF THE INVISIBLE was exhibited around the world, including screenings at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Meyrin, Switzerland where it was featured as the opening night selection of the 2021 CineGlobe Film Festival. Q&A with Steve Elkins followed at the CERN Globe of Science and Innovation.

A special presentation of ECHOES took place at the stunning King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (pictured above) as part of the Saudi Film Festival.

Other screenings include GlobeDocs (Boston), Spirit Film Festival (Tel Aviv), Global Tourism Film Festival (Netherlands), and the Environmental Film Festival (Australia) where the film was paired with a panel discussion about the ways ECHOES relates to Aboriginal knowledge systems, astronomy, and space technology for climate management, featuring Australia's first female indigenous astrophysicist Karlie Noon, novelist James Bradley, and Professor of Astrophysics Tamara Davis.

Echoes Of The Invisible (Promo Stills)

Nearly the entire cast of ECHOES OF THE INVISIBLE joined director Steve Elkins for Q&A after the film’s 2021 theatrical premiere at the Lumiere Cinema in Beverly Hills. The conversation — moderated by NASA's Visual Strategist Dan Goods — included two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Paul Salopek, “Oldest Living Things In The World” photographer Rachel Sussman, physicist Joe Incandela (who led the team that discovered the “God Particle” at CERN's Large Hadron Collider), and award-winning science writer Anil Ananthaswamy. ECHOES OF THE INVISIBLE film is currently streaming on APPLE TV.

National Museum Of Australia In Canberra

An archive of Elkins' work with western Arrernte aborigines in central Australia is now part of a permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Cadence Magazine published an account of the journey, which can be read here:
https://www.steveelkins.net/Writings/Aural-Maps/

Part of the exhibition includes recordings Elkins made of the Western Arrente Aborigine Ladies Choir in the deserts of central Australia (near the intersection of the Caterpillar Dreaming and the Honey Ant Dreaming), which were also featured in award-winning journalist John Pilger's film "Utopia," which Noam Chomsky has called "a beacon of light in dark times."

Cherry Stars Collide (Box Set)

A very special box set released in March 2023, featuring the music of The Autumns, Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Spiritualized, Mazzy Star, The Cranberries, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Julee Cruise, Red House Painters, Lush, The Innocence Mission, His Name Is Alive, Low, The Sundays, Pale Saints, St Etienne, and many other greats. The Autumns song which closes the compilation is from the long out-of-print 1995 cassette tape "Curious Snow."

For more on The Autumns: https://www.steveelkins.net/Music/The-Autumns

LA Times

Elkins' photography has frequently appeared in The Los Angeles Times, covering food, celebrities, festivals, and events hosted at the Paramount Studios backlot by Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold.

For more on Jonathan Gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__2uT1cZWkY

LA Times

Steve Elkins At Montréal's Festival International Du Film Sur L'Art

Steve Elkins' debut feature documentary THE REACH OF RESONANCE premiered at Montréal's Festival International Du Film Sur L'Art in March 2011, where it was honored with the prize for “Best Film Essay."

For more on the film: https://www.steveelkins.net/Cinema/The-Reach-Of-Resonance/

Producer David Marks And Steve Elkins Exploring The Music Library At Their Montréal Apartment During FIFA

The unofficial premiere of THE REACH OF RESONANCE took place six months before FIFA at the 2010 Angel City Jazz Festival (Los Angeles), where the closing event was a sneak preview screening at the historic Barnsdall Theater. Considering that THE REACH OF RESONANCE began in 2001 as a film about guitar genius Nels Cline (and is dedicated to him in the closing credits), it was an exciting coincidence that Nels was a recurring performer throughout the Angel City Jazz Festival. Unfortunately Nels could not attend the screening due to flying to Iceland that morning to perform with the Plastic Ono Band.

The sneak preview was preceded by a live musical interpretation of the film by experimental pianist Motoko Honda. Matthew Duerston, writing for StompBeast, wrote the following about Honda's performance: "Pianist and sound sculpturist Motoko Honda preluded the premiere of Steve Elkins’ frequently poetic documentary The Reach of Resonance (think Fast, Cheap and Out of Control with musical mavericks) by stating her confusion at being asked to compose a piece inspired by the film. 'I am mostly an improviser,' she said almost apologetically before sitting down for a furious and anarchic 20-minute tour de force in which she practically crawled inside the instrument. Mixing lyrical, almost George Winston-like etudes with a prepared technique I can only describe as 'flossing' -- slipping a fishing line around the piano strings and moving them back and forth rapidly to create a sound not unlike a methed-out bee swarm -- she beautifully refracted the film’s mind-bending investigations into the outer reaches of musical inspiration, or what composer Jon Rose, one of the film’s four subjects, tellingly labels 'sonic terrorism.'"

Montréal During Le Festival International Du Film Sur L'Art (2011)

Following the FIFA award, THE REACH OF RESONANCE began an international tour of film festivals, universities, and art museums around the world, including screenings at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, Tate Modern in London, National Gallery Of Art in Washington DC, and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic). Between 2010 and 2015, the film was screened in twenty countries and translated into eight languages.

The Reach Of Resonance Screenings At The Louvre (Paris), Tate Modern (London), Santander Cultural (Brazil), MUTEK Festival (Mexico City), Tel Aviv Museum Of Art (Israel) and Grauman's Egyptian (Hollywood)

Yerba Buena Center For The Arts (Left), Steve Elkins In Kronos Quartet's Music Library (Right)

On October 26, 2010, excerpts of THE REACH OF RESONANCE were screened at Yerba Buena Center For The Arts in San Francisco, California, as part of a Kronos Quartet concert. One of the pieces Kronos performed that evening was Bob Ostertag's transcription of a San Francisco riot into a musical score, titled "All The Rage." A sequence in THE REACH OF RESONANCE describes the history and composition of this piece. The concert marked the first time it had been performed in 15 years.

The same night, Northwestern University (Chicago) screened excerpts of THE REACH OF RESONANCE as part of a public conversation between Pulitzer-prize winning composer John Luther Adams and Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker (who was himself a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his book “The Rest Is Noise”). Ross has called Adams "one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century." Find out more here: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Music/John-Luther-Adams/

National Film Board Of Canada

Pierre Hébert, Steve Elkins, and Elo Meunier (pictured above) after a screening of THE REACH OF RESONANCE at the National Film Board of Canada in 2011. Pierre is an important figure in the history of animation, as he developed his own method of using a knife to scratch directly onto film negatives as the film is being pulled through a moving projector for a live audience. THE REACH OF RESONANCE explores Pierre's work with Bob Ostertag.

Harvard University, Boston Museum Of Fine Arts, And National Museum Of Fine Arts (Quebec City)

In 2011, THE REACH OF RESONANCE was screened at Harvard University in seminars about the relationship between art, science, and creative processes. Exhibitions of artwork inspired by THE REACH OF RESONANCE took place in Los Angeles and Lochyside, Scotland, featuring works by Matt Maust (Cold War Kids), Norton Wisdom (Jane's Addiction, Beck, National Bamboo Orchestra Of Bali), and artists from locations around the world where the film had been screened.

Other 2011 screenings include:
-Boston Museum Of Fine Arts
-National Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec City, Canada)
-Beirut International Film Festival (Lebanon)
-International Documentary Film Festival (Amsterdam)
-ARTLOOP Festival (Sopot, Poland)
-Festival Temps D'Images (Lisbon, Portugal)
-National Film Board Of Canada
-Montréal Museum Of Fine Arts
-GLBT History Museum (San Francisco)
-Art Institute Of California (Los Angeles)
-Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles)
-Origami Vinyl (Los Angeles)
-UC Berkeley Pacific Film Archive

ARTLOOP Festival (Sopot, Poland)

The European premiere of THE REACH OF RESONANCE took place in September 2011 at the ARTLOOP Festival in Sopot, Poland. An interview with Steve Elkins from the festival was published in Polish contemporary art magazine Notes Na 6 Tygodni, which can be read here: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/Making-Reach/Notes-Na-6-Tygodni/

In November 2011, THE REACH OF RESONANCE received the Temps D’Image Film For Art Award “for a film which reflects the importance of arts in human society in the most original way” at the Temps D'Images International Film Festival inLisbon, Portugal.

Le Fresnoy (France), CERN's Large Hadron Collider (Switzerland), Temps D'Images International Film Festival (Portugal)

2012 began with a screening of THE REACH OF RESONANCE for physicists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Meyrin, Switzerland with Steve Elkins and producer David Marks present for Q&A. The Large Hadron Collider is the largest machine ever built and the World Wide Web was created to process its data. It's a 17 mile long microscope which is searching for extra dimensions, the "God particle," anti-matter, and forces akin to those that took place in the first trillionth of a millisecond after the Big Bang at incredibly small sizes on the order of a tenth of a thousandth of a trillionth of a millimeter. It generates a magnetic field more than 100,000 times stronger than the Earth’s and temperature necessary for the LHC’s superconducting magnets to operate is the coldest extended region that we know of in the universe - even colder than outer space.

National Gallery Of Art (Washington DC)

In March 2012, THE REACH OF RESONANCE screened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Another memorable DC screening in 2012 was at Bloombars. Run by a volunteer group of artists and community leaders who believe strongly in the power of the arts to improve the community, Bloombars programs include enabling kids to start their Monday morning school day inspired by sharing their poetry with other young poets as far away as Brazil and Bangalore via video conference, a Hip Hop Education Literacy Program (H.E.L.P.) that allows students to explore international social justice themes through the innovative analysis of inspired Hip Hop lyrics, and a Sunrise Cinema (from 2am to 6am) where community members can sober up to international cinema until the morning metro starts, rather than drive home drunk.

In April 2012, The Earth Day Network partnered with Candela Films to promote THE REACH OF RESONANCE globally as a part of their “Arts For The Earth” program, which aims to broaden and diversify both the arts and environmental awareness. One of the artists in THE REACH OF RESONANCE — Glenn Weyant — has been turning the U.S. / Mexico border wall into a giant musical instrument for people on both sides of the border. Glenn's work was filmed for “One Day On Earth,” in which people in every country on the planet were asked to document the world around them on the same day. On Earth Day 2012, the film became the first in history to be screened in every country in the world on the same day, with screening locations ranging from the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York, to Afghanistan, to a football field in Belize, to CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

Grauman's Egyptian (Hollywood), OXDOX (UK), Beirut International Film Festival (Lebanon)

Despite a particularly heavy season of rocket attacks, THE REACH OF RESONANCE screened at Shapir College in Sderot, Israel, one of the most heavily bombed cities in the world, on the border of the Gaza strip. It was the climactic final screening of 2012.

Graduate student seminars on Steve Elkins' art began at Cal State Long Beach, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music, Tuvan State University (Russia), the Institut für Musikforschung, Universität Würzburg (Bavaria), and Constantine The Philosopher University (Slovakia).

Other 2012 screenings include:
-Le Fresnoy — Studio National des Arts Contemporains (Tourcoing, France)
-Tel Aviv Museum Of Art (EPOS International Film Festival, Israel)
-Environmental Film Festival (Washington DC)
-If You Say So Festival (Bydgoszcz, Poland)
-OXDOX International Film Festival (London, Oxford, Milton Keynes)
-New Jersey Institute Of Technology
-Huntington Library Museum And Botanical Gardens (San Marino, California)
-University Of California Davis
-UC Irvine Contemporary Arts Center
-Ultimate Picture Palace (Oxford, England)
-University Of Social Sciences And Humanities (Warsaw, Poland)
-Mal Seh'n Kino Cinema (Frankfurt, Germany)
-Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic)
-Northwest Film Forum (Seattle, Washington)
-Grauman's Egyptian Theatre (Hollywood)
-Bloombars (Washington DC)
-Glasbox (El Paso, Texas)
-Noise - Geräusch - Bruit Conference: Media and Cultures of Unstructured Sound (Erlangen, Germany)
-Postmutart Fest (Nitra Gallery, Slovakia)
-San Francisco Conservatory Of Music
-Institut für Musikforschung, Universität Würzburg (Bavaria)
-Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa (Slovakia)
-Shapir College (Sderot, Israel)

Kid Koala At MUTEK Festival of Digital Creativity and Electronic Music (Mexico City)

In 2013, four screenings of THE REACH OF RESONANCE were presented at the MUTEK Festival of Digital Creativity and Electronic Music in Mexico City. In addition to concerts by artists such as Amon Tobin, Kid Koala, Fourtet, Matmos, and others, the festival brings together artists, architects, policy makers, and urban developers from around the world to discuss innovative new ways that public space can be used for art and creative events to revive economic and cultural life in 21st-century cities, and contribute to urban renewal in city planning and community. Elkins spoke with audiences about the relationship of the film to these topics.

MUTEK Festival of Digital Creativity and Electronic Music (Mexico City)

Mexico City was engulfed in violent protests during the festival. Elkins was in Zócalo when a police officer was engulfed in flames after being hit by a Molotov cocktail thrown by protesters marking the anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, when government soldiers were ordered to open fire on students holding an anti-government protest ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics. In addition to these protests, about 30,000 striking Oaxaca teachers and union colleagues from other states paralyzed the capital, blocking access to the airport, stopping lawmakers from entering the Congress, laying siege to television broadcast studios and public buildings, turning Mexico City's main square into an occupied tent city. Guests of the festival were kidnapped from Elkins' hotel the same morning he flew home.

Mexico City

In 2013, THE REACH OF RESONANCE became part of the syllabus for art students at New York University (New York City).

Other 2013 screenings include:
-Indiana Wesleyan University
-Tuvan State University (Kyzyl, Russia)
-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York)
-Frequency Film Festival (San Diego)
-The Aurora Project (West Virginia)
-Santander Cultural (Porto Allegre, Brazil)

Trempolino (Nantes, France), University Of Social Sciences And Humanities (Warsaw, Poland), Institut für Musikforschung, Universität Würzburg (Bavaria)

By the end of 2013, THE REACH OF RESONANCE began distribution through Monoduo Films. Monoduo's roster features many other documentaries about unique music happening around the globe, including Egypt's Electro Chaabi scene, indie bands in Iceland ("Backyard"), noise music in Tokyo ("We Don't Care About Music Anyway"), the first black punk band who predated Bad Brains, Sex Pistols and even punk itself ("A Band Called Death"), and a new film about the emerging underground arts movement in war-torn in Afghanistan.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York), Frequency Film Festival (San Diego), International Museum and Library of Music (Bologna, Italy)

Other 2014 - 2015 screenings include:
-Trempolino (Nantes, France)
-San Francisco Center For New Music
-Portland Art Museum (Oregon)
-Kansk International Video Fest (Russia)
-Adventure Film Festival (Boulder, Colorado)
-Violin Atelier Vávra (Prague)
-Alexander Ochs Gallerie (Berlin)
-International Museum and Library of Music (Bologna, Italy)
-Trafačka Night Full Of Music Festival At (Nitra, Slovakia)

Charming Decay (Hibbleton Gallery)

A 2009 art book featuring Elkins' photography of graffiti and industrial landscapes in Spain, India, Los Angeles, and Costa Rica.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: Several of my photographs in this book were commissioned by a Houston-based charity known as Texas Arms of Love. By "commissioned," I mean that this charity was vigorously plundered by the booking agent of a well known christian rock star, to fund countless nights of gratuitous sushi dinners and heavy-drinking, of which I was gratefully participant. Thanks to my obliviousness to these pesky details at the time, I was saved the time and energy of a pang of conscience.

At any rate, I found myself reluctantly touring across Europe with this devious charlatan as a temporary job, and, unaware that the authors of my paychecks had intended those funds to lubricate the work of God's hand(s) on this earth, I used them to take numerous photographs of graffiti and industrial landscapes in Spain.

In light of this serpentine path from charity to my wallet, one could infer that my photographs in this book were in some way commissioned by either God or the devil, depending on your point of view. I, myself, am not partial. Both are tireless benefactors of the arts and stimulating company.

Whether or not celestial sponsors exist, I'm unconvinced that artists actually "create" anything, as much as artists would like to think they are that special. I prefer to think that artists attempt to draw lines between orphaned constellations. And if two points are required to draw a line, they may as well span heaven and hell, considering the ample uncharted space between the two. As ugly as dualities are, at least they provide a nice, flat workspace, and it is somewhere upon that desk that my camera stared into the light.

-Steve Elkins
November 2008

Photography Exhibitions In Germany And Hollywood

Group and solo exhibitions of Elkins' photography continue to take place in Europe and North America, since his debut exhibition at Create: Fixate (Hollywood, July 2007). Upcoming exhibitions to be announced soon.