Director, Writer, Producer Brendan Toller
btoller at gmail dot com
brendantoller.com
Brendan Toller is a New York City and New Haven, CT based filmmaker.
Brendan’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Wire, Pitchfork, The Onion and Dazed & Confused Korea. Brendan has been awarded grants from New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts and Hampshire College Seed Fund.
Toller’s first feature documentary, I Need That Record! (featuring Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Ian MacKaye, and Noam Chomsky et al.) riled unprecedented sell-out riots at the National Film Board of Canada, beat out Davis Guggenheim's It Might Get Loud for the lauded Audience Award at Melbourne Int’l Film Festival and had over 80,000 views in the early days of Netflix Streaming. I Need That Record! played around the world at over 60 film festivals, centers, and events (Melbourne Int’l Film Festival, Independent Film Festival of Boston, Raindance UK). The film played an important role in the 2000s vinyl revival, capturing independent stores importance and vitality in the digital age.
Toller’s second feature film Danny Says chronicles the life and times of Danny Fields. Fields was a pivotal figure in music and culture of the late 20th century working in various roles with the Velvet Underground, the Doors, MC5, the Stooges, Patti Smith, the Ramones et al. Danny Says was awarded Kickstarter’s Project of the Day (out of 5,000 projects) raising over $20,000 in starter funds. Judy Collins’ personal pledge put Danny Says over the Kickstarter goal. In 2014, Danny Says was featured on the “Year in Kickstarter” next to “Reading Rainbow’s Huge Comeback” and “A Band Delivers Pizza to Space.” Danny Says had its World Premiere at South By Southwest in 2015 where it was named one of Variety’s “13 Breakout Films of SXSW.” Rave reviews followed from Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and Variety. Danny Says was selected as the 2015 Opening Night film for Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Sound + Vision Festival, selling-out in just three days.
Danny Says will see wide release in 2016.
All this and more in the blink of an eye before age 30.
