Jodi Wille


Jodi Wille is an American filmmaker, book publisher, and curator known for her work exploring American subcultures and alternative spiritual communities.

Filmmaking and Photography

Wille directed and produced The Source Family, her first feature-length documentary, with Maria Demopoulos. The film, which unearths the story of the eponymous Los Angeles utopian commune and its charismatic leader, Father Yod, premiered in competition at South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2012, sold out multiple major film festivals, and was released theatrically in 60 cities in May 2013.
In 1994, R.E.M. gave Wille her first paid directing gig for their "Find the River" music video. Signed to DNA, she directed a number of music videos in the mid-90s. Wille worked prior to that as assistant to music video and commercial director Samuel Bayer and later as assistant and development consultant to feature film director Roland Joffé. Throughout the 90s, Wille also worked as a photographer, documenting alternative spiritual communities and self-taught artists and musicians including Sparks, Melissa Etheridge, and Vincent Gallo.
Wille is currently directing a feature documentary on The Unarius Academy of Science.

Book Publishing

In 1998, Wille co-founded Dilettante Press with Steve Nalepa, Nick Rubenstein, and Hedi El Kholti, a publishing house with a focus on self-taught, visionary, and vernacular art and photography. Dilettante published only three titles, but "their impact was considerable." Dilettante produced exhibitions, symposiums, and parties related to their books in galleries and museums in multiple cities in the U.S. and in Europe.
In 2005, Wille founded Process Media with her then-partner Adam Parfrey of Feral House. The imprint focuses on non-fiction, literary memoirs, and illustrated books exploring subcultures and artists such as Andy Kaufman, Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, John Sinclair and MC5, Father Yod and Ya Ho Wha 13, and Moondog. Process has also created a "Self-Reliance Series" of illustrated guide books that promote sustainable and self-sufficient living.

Curating

In 2000, Wille, Hedi El Kholti, and Cheryl Dunn co-curated the first exhibition of the work of amateur photographer Gary Lee Boas, "Starstruck: Photographs from Fan", at Deitch Projects. This led to exhibitions at galleries and museums in the U.S. and throughout Europe including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, The Photographers' Gallery in London, and Galerie Kamel Mennour in Paris.
In 2013, Wille was named as Co-curator with Rebecca Alban Hoffberger of the American Visionary Art Museum exhibition The Visionary Experience: St. Francis to Finster, a 44-artist, 244-works exhibition which ran 2014-2015.
Since 2014, Wille has curated several exhibitions of photographs, art, costumes, and ephemera produced by the spirit-channeling self-mastery school Unarius Academy of Science, including a 2016 exhibition at the London arts venue The Horse Hospital, works in The Visionary Experience exhibition at American Visionary Art Museum, a 2016 exhibition at The Standard Hotel Hollywood, and at the 2017 Basilisk exhibition at Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles.

Film Programming and Cultural Events

Over the years, Wille has programmed films and curated cultural events in several cities. From 2007-2017, Wille served as a regular guest programmer at The Cinefamily cinematheque in Los Angeles, hosting the popular "Occult LA" series and other programs including an eclectic range of guests from Kris Kristofferson, Tony Clifton, Rocky Erickson, and Tom Laughlin to white witches, Hare Krishnas, and Bigfoot researchers, as well as live music, ritual performance, panels, and art exhibitions.
In 2015, Wille presented a retrospective of the films of the Unarius Academy of Science at Cinefamily, which included a Unariun art and artifact exhibition and Unariun workshops. This led to invitations to present Unarius films at the 2015 San Francisco International Film Festival and the Horse Hospital arts center in London.

Selected works

Documentary Film

, directed with Maria Demopoulos

Music videos (Selected Works)