2023
Conrad is an educator, and media maker from Buffalo, NY. His works include short documentaries, and episodic doc series, exploring artistic practice and history. His work is included in the Burchfield Penney Art Center's collection of Buffalo Artists, and Termite TV and has screened on BPTM and WHYY. He is a production facilitator with the Precious Places Project, and works as an educator and facilitator with
Scribe Video Center, PhillyCAM, and WHYY. He produces an installation and performance piece LASTSUMMER which brings interactive documentary to life, live for a studio audience. The work explores Nature and self delusion.
artist statement:
The craft of filmmaking is deeply collaborative and experimental for me. I believe in community and collaborative filmmaking, and I don’t really subscribe to the self-centered interpretation of ‘auteur theory’. Toni Cade Bambara’s practice of “authenticating audience” has been a big impact on my work. She states that the cultural worker does more than entertain. Their works must function within the comunity "that names you." My career in instruction has led me to view public media as a necessary tool for free speech, and media literacy as a necessary tool for survival. My personal work explores familial archival methods, and using media as a tool for healing and intergenerational connection--more often than not, the work is experimental, and the experiment is to make media that is 'useful,' or in service.
In school I produced a late night variety show called “Late 4 Class w/ Conrad Burgos Jr.” I played a somewhat narcissistic teacher, using different mediums and styles to explore concepts like “staying alive,” “working from home” and rewriting historical narratives on the Black History Month holiday February 29th. I produced mini doc segments, experimental motion graphics, live and pre-recorded performances, and live interview segments.
Before L4C I produced episodic content like “The Negropedia,” a man on the street style show exploring Black culture in Buffalo, and “THE BRKDWN,” a show that explores the creative process with local artists. I contributed to the Burchfield Penney Art Center, a Buffalo museum featuring regional art, and their series documenting noteworthy Buffalo artists, produced by professor Meg Knowles.
