David Wise (writer) - Early Life

Early Life

Wise began experimenting with animation and live-action film at the age of seven, under the tutelage of several noted artists and experimental filmmakers, including Len Lye, Francis Lee, and Stan VanDerBeek. Wise created dozens of brief animations using cut-outs, scratch-on-film techniques, as well as conventional cel animation. In 1963, at the age of eight, Wise released a compilation of his experiments, entitled "Short Circuit." Distributed by the Filmmakers' Cooperative, "Short Circuit" was shown throughout the world, won several awards, and was the U.S. entry in the "Child & the World" festival in Czechoslovakia. Writing in the Village Voice, noted filmmaker and critic Jonas Mekas called Wise "the Mozart of Cinema." Wise was also written about in Time, Life, the New Yorker, Variety, and numerous other publications. By the time he was nine, he was lecturing on filmmaking at universities and film societies (including Washington & Lee and the University of Maryland at Baltimore), and appeared on numerous television shows, including I've Got a Secret with Steve Allen as host.