"I admire your work and want to bring larger attention to it". - Kevin Stein, former poet laureate of Illinois,, National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellow and Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing Program at Bradley University .

 

Kevin Stein wrote these words about George Aguilar,  a digital artist, poet and storyteller utilizing new media technologies to share poetry, independent cinema and original stories with global audiences since 1994.

 

As the former leader of a literary non-profit organization based in San Francisco (The National Poetry Association), Mr. Aguilar created the first website for a literary organization on the web, spearheaded early efforts in live webcasting of poetry events between major cities (VideoPhone), and was part of the very first efforts to broadcast poetry videos via the web in 1996 (Netvideo/Bluewolf).  He also produced major literary events that brought together esteemed poets, such as Maya Angelou, performing with stars from the Poetry Slam movement along with poet laureates. SF Examiner Article.

 

George is considered a pioneer in creating and delivering cinematic poetry (Cin(E)-Poems) via the web and other digital platforms that enhance the richness of poetry and art. He is an award winning filmmaker known for presenting, unique original stories through emerging art forms including ‘mash-ups’ and machinima and is an accomplished virtual world modeler and event organizer and designer.

 

George also led one of the only all-poetry based film festivals in the world (The Cin(E)-Poetry festival 1992-1998), which began as the Poetry Film Festival in 1975.  Through his efforts as director of the festival, George provided free copies of festival poetry films to schools and universities around the world and consulted on the creation of several new poetry-in-media around the world including the Zebra Poetry Festival (Berlin), the Sadho Poetry Festival (New Delhi) and the Vancouver Videopoetry Festival (Vancouver).  He was also consulted on the creation of online poetry media sites such as PoetryVisualized.com. 

 

After leaving his arts administration position with the NPA in 2000, George went on to create a series of award-winning digital cin(e)-poems (a term he coined) that has been presented and broadcast electronically at the Pompideu in Paris, the Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, Seattle's Bumbershoot festival and at higher educational institutions around the world.

His work in cinepoetry has brought acclaim and notoriety from the academic field with several books and articles written about how his work is useful in bringing more poetry to younger audiences. National trade magazine VideoMaker Magazine wrote, "If anyone can bring videopoetry to the masses, it's Aguilar."

 

Paralleling his work in cinepoetry, George was an early user of using videogames (machinma) to tell unique stories and poetry.  He has since created over 20 award-winning machinima films that explore new techniques in story telling with an emphasis on contemporary issues involving how humanity is changed by technology.  He is considered a pioneering machinima-maker from the most popular and successful virtual world (Second Life) under his avatar name of “Cecil Hirvi” http://www.youtube.com/user/CecilHirvi.  These machinima works have won awards and acclaim from Australia, Amsterdam, Singapore, the UK and the U.S. and is the subject of study at Stanford University and the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education.  He also was commissioned to design the first virtual replica of a cultural center in San Francisco in 1998.

 

Education    

1984-89                   B.A. – Media Production, University of California, San Diego, CA

 

Arts Administration 

1992-1996               Film Festival Director, Cin(E)-Poetry Festival

1996-2000               Executive Director, National Poetry Association, Inc. 1996-2000

 

Live Event Productions

 

        2000                Masonic Center, San Francisco, CA

                                Celebration of the Word featuring Maya Angelou    

 

1991-1997                     SF Museum of Modern Art, Exploratorium,

Fort Mason Center, South of Market Cultural Center

The Annual Cin(E)-Poetry Festival

 

Solo Exhibitions

 

        2008                South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco

Synthetic Masquerade: Avatar Art

               

        2007                South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco

Second Afterlife: Art in the Virtual World

Group Exhibitions  

 

        2005                South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco, Day of the Dead

Plan of the Intelligent Designer (Animated video on monitor)

               

        2004                South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco, Day of the Dead

Virgin of Coatlaxopeuh (Video projection on water mist)

 

                South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco, REMIX

Last Supper (Video embed in canvas)

 

2002 BumberShoot, Seattle, WA

The Digital Canvas (Touch screen video hung on wall)

 

South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco, Day of the Dead (Group)

A Mere Extension of Herself (Video projection on water)

    

2001 Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR

The Bitscreen.com, Les ciném@s de demain I:. Curated by Nora Barry

Conference Speaker and Workshop Facilitator

 

2001                        Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art, Madrid Spain

Presenting Cin(E)-Poesia

 

                                Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain

Teaching how to create Cin(E)-Poems via computer software

 

2001             Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English, Baltimore

On the merits of creating Cin(E)-Poetry using computer software

 

                                Pan-African Bookfest, Florida  - Presenting Cin(E)-Poesia

Television Productions

2004-2006                      SomArts Media on Ch. 29,

Producer, Director, Writer, Editor

 

1995-2001   Drexler University, Philadelphia, PA  DUTV, Ch.54

The Cin(E)-Poetry Award winners Broadcast

 

1997                The Short List, KQED TV Ch. 9

 Cin(E)-Poems

 

       1996 The Living Room Festival, KQED TV Ch. 9

 Cin(E)-Poems

 

ZoomTV, PBS, WGBH

 Cin(E)-Poems

 

1994-1998                      Literary Television, The Cin(E)-Poetry Festival on Ch. 52

Producer, Director, Editor

Select Press Mentions

Print/Radio/TV  

 

2010           Poetry’s Afterlife: Verse in the Digital Age, University of Michigan Press,

"Perhaps no one has done more to fuel the interaction of poetry and film than digital artist and filmmaker George Aguilar."  -Kevin Stein former poet laureate of Illinois,, NEA Poetry Fellow and Professor of English, Creative Writing Program at Bradley University .

 

Poetry Goes Intermedia - Featuring several Cin(E)-Poems by the American Filmmaker and Artist George Aguilar. Written by Dr. Martina Pfeiler  2010

 

Cin(E)-Poetry: Engaging the Digital Generation in 21st-Century Response

“It was the work of Cin(E)-Poet George Aguilar and teacher David Bengston, co-presenters of a session at NCTE's annual convention in 2001, that inspired the project I report here." - D. Stuart. Cin(E)-Poetry: Engaging the Digital Generation in 21st-Century Response is a journal article by Prof. Denise Stuart and published by the National Council of Teachers of English.

 

2009 - 1994
Santa Barbara Independent “The Body Electric Journal and Cin(E)-Poetry”
Berkeley Daily Planet on ‘Diary of Niclas Gheiler’ 1994
VideoMaker Magazine, Profile: "George Aguilar and VideoPoetry"  1994
ICOM Film and Video Postproduction Magazine, “Streaming Cinema” 2000
San Francisco Examiner, "CELEBRATION OF THE WORD” September 2000
Long Prairie Leader, "Multimedia Artist comes to Long Prairie", 2001
Seattle Weekly, “Bumbershoot:FutureForWord”, Sept. 2003
The Berkeley Voice, Arts: "Camp gives kids taste of media arts", July 2003
San Francisco Chronicle, “Bringing Light to the Darkness” October 2003
KPIX Ch. 5, Interview with Barbara Rodgers  Oct. 24, 2004
Virtually Art, “Artists untangle the Web of a new medium”, Debra Diblasi, 2001
Best of the Net by Mike Neff
Streaming Cinema...It isn't film Anymore
Successfully making Cin(E)-Poems in Wisconsin

 

 

Cin(E)-Poetry: Collection of  23 Short Digital Productions by G. Aguilar

                       

2000 – 2009            Afterglow (Animation/Digital Video/After Effects) - 4:05

Agitated Beauty - 16MM - 2:10 - Sylvia Plath's poem about a domineering  mother.

Alone on an Island - Digital Video - 2:10

A Matter of Faith (and numbers) - Animation/Digital Video - 2:05

Ancestral Mutation- Animation - 1:40  A wordless dream

An Ageless Certainty - Animation/Digital Video - 2:40

An Uncommon Ghost - ANIMATION - 3:30 –

And What Shall I Ever Know? - Digital Video/Animation - 1:08

Blackbirds - Digital Stills 3:55 - A  family fighting at a funeral compared to birds.

ESISTERE (TO EXIST) -3D Animation :55 secs Everything changed as of 911.

Frozen, Blistered Hand –Stills, Animation, Machinima - 2:10

I Am Evolution (Video Concept and Editing) Poetry by M. Ricciardi

Impressions of a Moment –Digital Video, Photoshop - 2:27

Meaning -Digital Video - :55

Mighty Mountain/Tiny Flower -Animation – 2:55 

Portrait on Watercolor - Digital Video - 3:55

Prayer for Simplicity- Animation - 1:15

somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond - Animation - 2:10

The Color of Jazz - Digital Video/ANIMATION - 2:10

The Goddess of Technology - 3:55 –

Under the Happiest Dawn - Digital Video

What He'll Do - Digital Video - 3:22 -

What I Thought I Heard in Philadelphia... - Digital Video2:35

 

2000 – 2005            Official Selection: The Berkeley Film and Video Festival, Berkeley, CA  2004

Official Selection: The 7th aluCine Toronto Latino Media Festival 2006

Official Selection: Visible Verse, Vancouver, CN  2005

Official Selection: American Film Festival, San Franicsco, 2004

Official Selection: International Festival on VideoPoesia, Argentina 2004

Official Selection  3rd Hollywood.com Indie Film Festival 2003

Official Selection: Philadelphia-Fringe Festival: New Directions in New Media. PA 2003   

Official Selection: Rome University III, Rome, IT 2002

Official Selection: CIN(E)-POETRY SHOWCASE, Seattle, WA, 2002 

Official Selection: 4th Ann. Vancouver Videopoem Festival,  Vancouver, CN 2002

Official Selection: Zebra Poetry Festival Award, Berlin, Germany 2002

Official Selection: Seattle Poetry Festival, Seattle WA  2002

Official Selection: Voices and Visions Independent Short Film Fest, Oakland, CA. 2002

Official Selection: 49th Columbus International Film & Video festival, 2001

Official Selection: Digital BearFest, CA 2001

Official Selection: Poetry Bout, Taos, New Mexico 1999-2000

Official Selection:  Streaming Cinema Philadelphia 2001

Official Selection:  Digital Express Competition-Seoul, Korea Festival 2001

Official Selection: Streaming Cinema 2.0 at Arts Electronica, Austria, 2001

Official Selection  SeNef, the Seoul Internet Film Festival 2000

Official Selection  Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema - 2000

AWARDS: Winner CYBER ARTS, BVFF Festival, 2001

AWARDS: Voices and Visions Independent Short Film Fest, (Honorable Mention)
Permanent Collections: Center for Exceptional Children, Jacksonville, NC, George Mason University, Calgary Board of Education, Alberta CANADA, University of California, Santa Barbara,  Film Study Dept., Santa Barbara, CA 2005, Universitat Dortmund, Dortmund, GERMANY

Machinima Productions

Writer, Director, Editor and Producer –George Aguilar aka Cecil Hirvi

 

2011                        Warriors of Aliveness (Machinima)

Official Selection: ISTE: International Society for Technology in Education

Official Selection: Berkeley Video and Film Festival, Berkeley, CA

Official Selection: VAD Festival Internacional de Vídeo in Arts Digitals, Girona Spain

Official Selection: MaMachinima International Festival, Amsterdam

Official Selection: UWA III, University of Western Australia, AUS

AWARD: 'Open This End' Award of Excellence in Film

AWARD: MachinimUWA III Special Award for INTERPRETATION AND DELIVERY

 

2009                        The SunFisher (Machinima/Mashup)

Official Selection: Berkeley Video and Film Festival, Berkeley, CA

Official Selection: VAD Festival Internacional de Vídeo in Arts Digitals, Girona Spain

Awards Finalist: Shooot Awards Festival, Youth Centre, Singapore

Official Selection: ISTE: International Society for Technology in Education

AWARD: Grand Prize Winner- Animation, BVFF, Berkeley, CA

AWARD: MachinimUWA III Special Award for INTERPRETATION AND DELIVERY

 

                                Elegantly Forbidden (Machinima/Mashup)

                        Official Selection: International Festival of Movement, Manchster, UK

Official Selection: 2nd Annual Machinima Expo, Virtual World Second Life

Official Selection: 2nd Annual Sadho Poetry Festival, India

Official Selection: MaMachinima International Festival, Amsterdam

Awards Finalist: Shooot Awards Festival, Youth Centre, Singapore


2008-2006               To My Beloved (Machinima)

                        Work Commissioned by Prof. P. Portuges, Dept of Film, UC Santa Barbara

Awards Finalist: Shooot Awards Festival, Youth Centre, Singapore

 

KISS (Machinima)

Work Commissioned by Prof. P. Portuges, Dept of Film, UC Santa Barbara

Future O (Machinima)
Official Selection: Good Vibrations Amateur Erotic Film Festival, San Francisco, CA

Awards Finalist: Shooot Awards Festival, Youth Centre, Singapore


The Biggest Grief of All (Machinima)
Official Selection: Best Machinimas Collection, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

Awards Finalist: Shooot Awards Festival, Youth Centre, Singapore

 

The Saga of Cecil Chapters 1-8 (Machinima Series)

Chapter 1:  In the Beginning..                           Chapter 2:  A Borg’s Lament *

Chapter 3:  When a Borg Dreams                    Chapter 4:  The ‘lil Dictators

Chapter 5:  The Beauty of Anonymity*          Chapter 6:  First Love of a Borg *

Chapter 7:  Van Gogh in the Virtual World*     Chapter 8:  From Cecil With Love

*Official Selection: Berkeley Video and Film Festival, Berkeley, CA

 

Machinima Reviews

“After reviewing the wonderful diversity of machinima that was submitted, we realized that we needed to create an additional category to celebrate machinima that inspires us. These pioneers are showing us the way by illuminating what is possible!” – ISTE 2011

 

"Wow, this is amazing work, the detail is so rich.  You have such a talent for writing script and storyboarding.  I'm going to integrate this somewhere in my teaching." -Lisa Dawley, Ph.D. Professor & Chair, Dept. of Educational Technology, Boise State University, Chair, ARVEL SIG, Co-Chair, Mobile Learning SIG

 

Film, Video and Mashup Productions

Writer, Director, Editor and Producer –George Aguilar

 

2007                        Diary of Niclas Gheiler (Found Footage, Machinima)

Official Selection: Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Toronto CN

Official Selection: San Diego Jewish Film Festival, San Diego, CA

Official Selection: Youngstown Area Jewish Film Festival, Ohio

Official Selection: Berkeley Film and Video Festival, Berkeley, CA

Official Selection: Tucson Jewish Film Festival, Tucson, Arizona

Official Selection: III International de Videopoetry Festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Official Selection: LA InternationalShorts Festival, Los Angeles, CA

Official Selection: The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival

Official Selection: Davis Film Festival, Davis, CA

Official Selection: UK Jewish Film Festival, UK

Official Selection: 6th World Jewish Film Festival, Ashkelon, Israel

Official Selection: East Valley Jewish Film Festival, Tempe, AZ

AWARD: Grand Festival Winner,  BVFF, Berkeley, CA

AWARD: Best Short,  San Diego Jewish Film Festival, CA

AWARD: 2nd Place Winner,  The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, CA

PART OF PERMANENT COLLECTION: Leo Baeck Institute, NY

PART OF PERMANENT COLLECTION: Jüdisches Museum München

 

 2004                       Lifestyles of the Rich and InFamous (Editor and SFX only)

Official Selection: The Native Voice Film Festival, South Dakota

Official Selection: The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival

Official Selection: 29th American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco

 

2001                        Path of Sun/Child of the Moon (Digital Video)

Official Selection: 29th American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco

 

Select Reviews:

"I admire your work and want to bring larger attention to it." - Kevin Stein, Poet Laureate of Illinois

 

“The entire screening committee was in awe of your talent. It’s one of the most creative pieces of filmmaking we’ve ever viewed…”  - East Valley JFF


”I cannot tell you how incredibly wonderful your film is. Mesmerizing and gorgeously shot. It was a pleasure to see. Thanks you for making it!! -TJFF, 2007



"George Aguilar’s Second Life pursuits, challenge our precepts of how films may be created in the future." -Glendale Daily Planet

"George Aguilar’s DIARY OF NICLAS GHEILER was one of the best films of 2008" -Berkeley Daily Planet

"I have been browsing your movies and am enjoying them. I am very impressed." -Genry Lowood, Curator of History of Science & Technology, Stanford

“Dear George, It was wonderful meeting you and seeing your examples of Cin(e)poems... for your presentation at Intermedia Arts... it was clear that those who were in attendance enjoyed it. And my students at Hamline University were excited by this art form they'd never seen before.”-Carolyn Holbrook, Educator, Minn., MN