TONY BUBA
Education
Doctor of Arts, Honorary Degree, Allegheny College, Pennsylvania, 2002
Master of Fine Arts, Film, Ohio University, Ohio, 1976
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, Edinboro University, Pennsylvania, 1971
Recent Screenings & Exhibitions
2016
Screening – No Place but Home: An Evening with Filmmaker Tony Buba – Double Exposure Series – Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
2015
Retrospective – Indiana University Cinema, Bloomington
Screening – Ghosts Of Amistad – Athens International Film Festival
Screening – Ghosts Of Amistad – Three Rivers Film Festival, Pittsburgh
Screening – Ghosts Of Amistad – Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles
2014
Screening – We Are Alive – Anthology Film Archives, New York City
Screening – Lightning Over Braddock – Anthology Film Archives, New York City
Retrospective – Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archives, University of California, Berkeley
Screening – We Are Alive – Northwest Film Forum, Seattle
2013
Screening – We Are Alive – Brooklyn Museum of Art
Screening – We Are Alive – Marquette University, Milwaukee
Screening – We Are Alive – Athens International Film Festival
Screening – We Are Alive – Arizona International Film Festival
Screening – We Are Alive – Three Rivers Film Festival
2012
Retrospective – Anthology Film Archives, New York City
Performance – LaToya Ruby Frazier: Demystifying the Myth of the “Urban Pioneer” with Tony Buba, Sharon Zukin, Damian Catera, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Two Person – Inheritance: LaToya Ruby Frazier and Tony Buba – Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA), Indianapolis
Screening – Washing Walls With Mrs. G. – 50th Anniversary Ann Arbor Film Festival – part of a program on best shorts screened at a past festival
Screening – Lightning Over Braddock – Light Industry, Brooklyn
2010
Group Show – Planet of Slums – Third Streaming (3S), New York City
Screening – Four Decades in Braddock – Three Rivers Film Festival, Pittsburgh
2008
Retrospective – Museum Ludwig – Filmforum, Cologne, Germany
2006
Screening – Braddock Food Bank, Fade Out, Mill Hunk Herald – Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Screening – Lightning Over Braddock – Buenos Aires International Film Festival as part of Best American Independent Cinema series
Past Screenings & Exhibitions
(Partial list of more than 100 screenings and exhibitions prior to 2006)
•Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Bologna, Italy
•Sundance Film Festival
•Berlin Film Festival
•Toronto Film Festival
•FESPACO, Burkina Faso
•London Film Festival
•Figueira da Foz, Portugal
•Birmingham Film Festival, England
•Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Lincoln Center, New York City
•Hirshorn Museum, Washington, DC
•Screening at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
•Flaherty Film Seminar – lead film for the seminar
•Museum of Modern Art, New York City (Cineprobe Series)
Television Broadcasts
Lightning Over Braddock – Sundance Channel and Bravo
Struggles In Steel – National PBS, Sundance Channel, and Starz
Major Fellowships and Grants
•American Film Institute, 1994
•ITVS Production Grant, 1993
•National Endowment For The Arts, 1991
•Rockefeller Fellowship, 1989
•National Endowment For The Arts, 1985
•John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1985
Additional Fellowships and Grants
•Media Arts Fellowship, 2008
•Mellon Foundation, 2002
•Pennsylvania Council On The Arts, 2001
•Pennsylvania Humanities Council, 2000
Past Fellowships and Grants
(Total of 20 grants or fellowships from the following organizations prior to 2000)
•Pennsylvania Council On The Arts
•Pittsburgh Foundation Multi-Cultural Arts Initiative
•Pennsylvania Humanities Council
•AFI Regional Media Grant
•Illinois Arts Council
Personal Filmography
Current
Thunder Over Braddock (in progress)
Two Women From Tursi (in development)
2020
Thru A Window – Covid 19 Part 2 (color, 2.5 min)
Thru A Window – Covid 19 Part 1 (color, 8 min)
2019
Pasta Lesson – A Sunday in Rabatana (color, 17 min)
Making Sopressata With Dom and the Guys (color, 14 min)
The Barber of New Kensington (color, 13 min)
The Last Pawn Shop in Braddock (color, 6 min)
Re-Flex-ions n. pl. (color, 3 min)
2018
Off The Table – The Case for HR 676 (Producer) (color, 23 min)
2017
Welcome to Sgambati’s (color, 5 min)
Pirozzi’s Barber Shop (color, 7 min)
2015
Billy Price and Otis Clay Performances (YouTube videos)
2014
Ghosts of Amistad – In the Footsteps of the Rebels (color, 56 min)
2013
We Are Alive – The Fight to Save Braddock Hospital (color, 67 min)
Accordion Stories (color, 73 min)
2011
Please Forgive Me (color, 4 min, music video)
Carhartt Baby, You Broke My Heart (color, 3 min, music video)
Short videos for YouTube
2010
The Fall (color, 3 min)
2009
Four Seasons 4 screen (video installation)
2008
Voices Of Our Region (color, 10 min)
Voices Of Our Region (website, oral history project, 2 hr)
Stigmata (color, 2min)
2007
Ode To A Steeltown (color, 12 min)
2006
Expressway – A Work in Progress (color, 5 min)
2000
ECI (color, 15min)
1998
Unidentified Man (color, 7 min)
Fade Out (b&w, 9.6 min)
1997
Stay In Control (color, 4 min, music video)
1996
Struggles In Steel (color, b&w, 86 min)
1995
Small Differences (video, color, 20 min)
1994
No Pets (color, 80 min)
1988
Lightning Over Braddock (color, 80 min)
1985
Braddock Food Bank (color, 5 min, silent)
Birthday Party (color, 5 min)
1983
Voices From A Steeltown (color, 28 min)
Peabody and Friends (b&w, 7 min)
1981
Mill Hunk Herald (color, b&w, 13 min)
1980
Washing Walls With Mrs. G. (b&w, 6 min)
Home Movies (color, 3 min. silent)
Homage To A Milltown (color, 3 min)
1979
Sweet Sal (b&w, 25 min)
1976
Betty’s Corner Cafe (b&w, 11 min)
1975
Shutdown (b&w, 12 min)
1974
J. Roy – New & Used Furniture (b&w, 10 min)
1973
Thoughts (b&w, 3 min)
To My Family (b&w, 3 min)
1972
Free Film Today (color, 13 min)
Feature Film Credits
2013
Director, Producer (Co-Directed by Tom Dubensky) – We Are Alive! The Struggle to Save Braddock Hospital
1996
Director, Producer, Editor – Struggles In Steel
1994
Director, Producer, Editor – No Pets
1988
Director, Producer, Editor – Lightning Over Braddock
1984-85
Sound Transfers – Day of the Dead
1981
Assistant Editor – Knightriders
1978
Soundperson – Dawn of the Dead
1976
Soundperson – Martin (video credits)
1976-94
Worked on hundreds of corporate and industrial videos, plus numerous programs that aired on PBS
Partial Listing of Honors
•John E. O’Connor Film Award, American Historical Association, 2016
•Third Place, Documentary, Athens International Film Festival, 2015
•Studs Terkel Award for Media, Working Class Studies Association, 2013
•Distinguished Alumni Award, Ohio University, 2007
•Arts Award, International Olympic Committee, Matera, Italy, 2003
•Outstanding Alumni, Edinboro University, 2002
•Named Honorary Citizen of Tursi, Italy, 2000
•Silver Baton, Alfred I. DuPont, Columbia University Award for for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, 1999
•Artist of the Year, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1998
•Harry Schwab Excellence in the Arts, Pittsburgh Magazine WQED, Pittsburgh, 1996
•Advocacy & Awareness Award, United Cerebral Palsy of Pittsburgh for directing & producing Small Differences, 1996
•Medal of Merit, Outstanding Alumni Award, Ohio University, 1993
•Art Achievement Award, Outstanding Alumni, Edinboro University, 1991
•Homenagem da Camara Municipal da Figueira da Foz, Figueira Da Foz, 1989
•Pennsylvania Media Artist of the Year, 1985
Partial Listing of Prizes
(Over 60 prizes from various film festivals, including the following)
•The American Film Festival
•Ann Arbor Film Festival
•Athens Film Festival
•Sinking Creek Film Festival
•Three Rivers Film Festival
•Black Maria Film Festival
•Black Programming Festival
•National Educational Festival
•New York Film Expo
•Great Lakes Film Festival
•Bellevue Film Festival
•Birmingham Film Festival, England
Teaching Experience
Visiting Professor, Chatham University, 2004-06
Assistant Professor, Robert Morris University, 2002-04
Visiting Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2001
Visiting Professor, Edinboro University, 1999-00
Adjunct Associate Professor, Pittsburgh Filmmakers Inc., 1981-99
Visiting Professor, Ohio University School of Film, 1991
Visiting Professor, University of Southern Illinois Film Department, 1978-79
Selected Books That Discuss Tony’s Work
A New History Of Documentary Film, Jack C. Ellis, Betsy A. McLane, The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006
Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Organized Guide to Films About Labor, Tom Zaniello, ILR Press Books, 2004
The Autobiographical Documentary in America, Jim Lane, Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography, University of Wisconsin Press, 2002
In Sound Theory/Sound Practice, Rick Altman, ed., Routledge, Chapman, and Hall, 1992
Selected Articles
In Person: Directors Put Themselves Onscreen, in Two Indies from the Eighties, Richard Brody, The New Yorker, August 2015
A Steel Town’s Chronicler and Conscience: Tony Buba: The Bard of Braddock, John Anderson, New York Times, June 2012
Director in Residence: The Films of Tony Buba at Anthology Film Archives, Justin Stewart, Film Comment, June 2012