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Bill Fishman is an acclaimed director of film and video. He has directed videos for scores of rock, country, rap, and R&B bands, including Wilco, the Ramones, George Clinton, and many other artists. Bill won the 2003 MTV V.M.A.'s Viewer's Choice Award for Good Charlotte's, "Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous" and the Country Music Association's "Best Video" Award two consecutive years for his work with Hank Williams Jr. His video for punk rockers Suicidal Tendencies' anthem "Institutionalized" was displayed in the Portland Museum of Art during a multi-media exhibit celebrating modern Dadaism.
Bill Fishman is an acclaimed director of film and video. He has directed videos for scores of rock, country, rap, and R&B bands, including Wilco, the Ramones, George Clinton, and many other artists. Bill won the 2003 MTV V.M.A.'s Viewer's Choice Award for Good Charlotte's, "Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous" and the Country Music Association's "Best Video" Award two consecutive years for his work with Hank Williams Jr. His video for punk rockers Suicidal Tendencies' anthem "Institutionalized" was displayed in the Portland Museum of Art during a multi-media exhibit celebrating modern Dadaism.
Fishman created Fallout Films in 1984 as an independent production company set up to produce his own music videos and later feature films. He directed videos for such diverse acts as The Ramones, Good Charlotte, Wilco, The Georgia Satellites, Hank Williams Jr., Kid Rock, Van Halen, The Brand New Heavies, George Clinton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Fogerty, Geggy Tah, Jessica Simpson, Theory of a Deadman, Dream Theater, Lamb Of God, Bootsy Collins, We The Kings, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Train, Counting Crows, Megadeth, Fall Out Boy, Nickelback, AJR, Andy Grammer, The Decemberists and Lucius, and produced videos for hundreds of others. He recently completed the video for the Hank Williams Jr. song "Naked Women and Beer," featuring Kid Rock. With this video, Bill undertook the always arduous, thankless task of filming beautiful women dancing naked. (That's Bill with the "cast" in the above photograph.) Below, you can see him in a cameo in DBNS, playing a great director. Unfortunately, nobody was behind the camera to direct Bill into wearing a nicer hat...
Having attended some of the top film schools, including N.Y.U., S.F. Art Institute, SUNY at Purchase, UCLA and A.F.I., Bill made his big screen writing and directorial debut in 1988 with the celebrated feature film Tapeheads, starring John Cusack and Tim Robbins, which went on to capture both the "Prix de Public" and "Gran Prix" awards at Switzerland's Val D'Isere Film Festival. The film also launched lasting friendships between the maverick director, Cusack, and Ebbe Roe Smith (Falling Down). Tapeheads is considered one of the great cult films ever made (legal complications kept it out of general release). Watch for supporting performances by soul legends Don Cornelius, Junior Walker and Sam Moore, and cameos by comedians Bobcat Goldthwaite and "Weird Al" Yankovic, rocker Ted Nugent, punk legends Jello Biafra, Courtney Love and Stiv Bator, ex-Monkee (and executive producer) Michael Nesmith, and rapper Doug E. Fresh. It captured both the "Prix de Public" and the "Gran Prix" awards at Switzerland's Val D'Isere Film Festival. In the book "The 100 Best Films to Rent You've Never Heard of," David N. Meyer went so far as to say that he worships "at the altar of Fishman."
"Tapeheads" had to be cut down to an hour and a half, but there are still three hour bootleg versions circulating throughout Hollywood for the die-hard fans. It's said to be worth viewing just for the lost Herve Villechaize scenes.
Bill and Ebbe went on to co-write the screenplays Dreaming of Babylon and Car 54, Where Are You? for Orion Pictures, which Bill also directed, and featured every actor and/or rock star you can possibly think of in some sort of cameo role. Talk show hosts, comedians and Baldwin brothers abound.
Bill was also an executive producer on the film Posse, and acted in the film Floundering in the unforgettable role of the Insurance Salesman. (He was unforgettable because nobody saw the film, therebye having nothing to forget.)
His latest film, My Dinner with Jimi, chronicles the experiences of the Turtles in the nineteen-sixties. They chart a #1 hit with "Happy Together," dodge the draft by pretending to be drugged out mental cases ("pretending?"), fly to London, meet Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Brian Jones, and a very moody Moody Blues, practically disband after being made fun of by John Lennon, and then perform a triumphant British concert. The film stars Academy Award nominated actor, Justin Henry, Royale Watkins and George Wendt. My Dinner With Jimi premiered at the 2003 Slamdunk Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where it received the Best Screenplay Award. The Asheville Film Festival in North Carolina awarded the film Best Feature Film. The film is from a script by Turtles vocalist Howard Kaylan, and was produced by Rhino Films. DBNS' John Corbett even makes an appearance! Won't that guy ever learn?
Bill just finished producing Fallout's latest feature film, Underdogs.
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