
David Gatten
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- February 11, 1971
- Birthplace
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
David Edward Gatten (Born February 11, 1971, Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American experimental filmmaker and moving image artist. Since 1996 Gatten's films have explored the intersection of the printed word and moving image, cataloguing the variety of ways in which texts function in cinema as both language and image, often blurring the boundary between these categories. His 16mm films often employ cameraless techniques, combined with close-up cinematography and optical printing processes. In addition to the ongoing 16mm films, Gatten is now making hybrid 16mm/digital works and has completed an entirely digital feature-length project called The Extravagant Shadows. Among other projects, they are currently working on a series of films entitled Secret History of the Dividing Line, a True Account in Nine Parts, a project which Artforum magazine called "one of the most erudite and ambitious undertakings in recent cinema." He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005 to continue work on this series of films exploring the library of William Byrd II of Westover (1674–1744) and the lives of William Byrd and their daughter Evelyn Byrd (1707–1737). [Wikipedia]
Filmography
- The World is Bound with Secret Knots
The World is Bound with Secret Knots 2028
Director
- The Dusting of the Books
The Dusting of the Books 2028
Director

The Spirit Lamp 2025
Director

This Day’s Madness did prepare Tomorrow’s Silence 2021
Director

The Heart is the Residence of the Spirit 2019
Director

Narrow Rivers, Open Seas & Seventeen Sunsets (Silences for A Merchant Mariner) 2018
Director

Odysseus and the Oceanic Feeling 2017
as Narrator

Intermission 2016
as Narrator

The Illinois Parables 2016
as Himself

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions 2016
Director
- China monumentis (A Roll for Peter)
China monumentis (A Roll for Peter) 2016
Director

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry 2015
Director

What Places of Heaven, What Planets Directed, How Long the Effects? or, The General Accidents of the World 2013
Director

By Pain and Rhyme and Arabesques of Foraging 2013
Director

The Extravagant Shadows 2012
Director

The Matter Propounded, of Its Possibility and Impossibility, Treated in Four Parts 2011
Director

So Sure of Nowhere Buying Times to Come 2010
Director

Film for Invisible Ink, case no. 323. Once Upon a Time in the West 2010
Director

Journals and Remarks 2009
Director
- Ordinary Time, Equivocal Inventory
Ordinary Time, Equivocal Inventory 2009
Director
- Today! (excerpts #28 and #19)
Today! (excerpts #28 and #19) 2008
Director
- Today! (excerpts)
Today! (excerpts) 2008
Director

Rete: Red Hook, Brooklyn 2008
Director
![Poster for Film for Invisible Ink, Case No. 142: ABBREVIATION FOR DEAD WINTER [Diminished by 1,794]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Fw185%2FhjjoZKt940oSgrdkTUDLts2YCLZ.jpg&w=96&q=75)
Film for Invisible Ink, Case No. 142: ABBREVIATION FOR DEAD WINTER [Diminished by 1,794] 2008
Director

How to Conduct a Love Affair 2007
Director
- Today!
Today! 2007
Director

What The Water Said, Nos. 4-6 2007
Director

Shrimp Boat Log 2006
Director

Film for Invisible Ink case no. 71: BASE-PLUS-FOG 2006
Director

The Great Art of Knowing 2004
Director

Fragrant Portals, Bright Particulars and the Edge of Space 2003
Director

Secret History of the Dividing Line 2002
Director

The Enjoyment of Reading, Lost and Found 2001
Director

Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works Applied to the Art of Printing 1999
Director

What The Water Said, Nos. 1-3 1998
Director

Hardwood Process 1996
Director

Silver Align 1995
Director
Credits from TMDB.