Todd
Verow

Todd Verow was born in 1966 in Bangor, Maine, USA. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, at Brown University and also at the American Film Institute. After a series of short and experimental films in the 1980s and early 90s he made his first feature film, “Frisk”, named after the novel by Dennis Cooper. “Frisk” not only received critical acclaim for its unusual mix of Super8 and diverse video formats, but also due to its themes: sadism and murder in the gay community. The film has been screened at several international film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin and Toronto. In the same year Verow formed his own production company, Bangor Films, in New York, together with Jim Dwyer. Bangor Films’ productions are all made independently and are realised with minimal budgets.

After his successful feature film debut, Verow formed a company of actors with whom he has sought to develop an intimate film-language through improvisation and unelaborate camera technique. They made the films “Little Shots of Happiness” (1997), “Shucking the Curve” (1998) and “The Trouble with Perpetual Déja-vu” (1999). Since then Verow has regularly attended several renowned film festivals with his thematically controversial and unconventional films. In the meantime Bangor Films has advanced to become a flag-bearer of independent filmmaking in America.

“Little Shots of Happiness” and “A Sudden Loss of Gravity” were screened, in 1997 and 2000 respectively, at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2001, Todd Verow was a guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme, which enabled him to work further on his film “Take Away” (2002), which later was also partly filmed in Berlin. Todd Verow’s work is represented on the Artists-in-Berlin compilation DVD “6 1/2” by his short films “Superstar Make-Up Tips” (2000) and “Fetal” (1998). In “Anonymous” (2004) Verow takes on the leading role for the first time and was once again invited to the Panorama section of the Berlinale. “Vacationland” (2005), tells the autobiographically tinged story of two teenagers from the American provincial town of Bagnor, who discover their homosexual tendencies. In 2006 the film was also presented at the Panorama section of the Berlinale. Todd Verow’s latest project is a political drama, titled “Bulldog in the White House”. The independent director lives and works in New York.