By Bradley Towle
CATSKILL — “Analog Dreams: The Art of Brian Dewan” is a 2018 documentary short film about Catskill resident and multi-media artist Brian Dewan. The film opens with shots of familiar local scenes before taking us into Dewan’s home. It is hard to know where to begin describing the artist’s work, and director Keif Roberts introduces us to Brian Dewan by having him take the viewer on a tour of his analog musical inventions. Buttons, rotary phone dials, and 8-track tapes become repurposed in the ‘Dewanatrons’ conceived and built by Brian and his cousin, Leon. Brian Dewan demonstrates some of the devices for the camera, offering a glimpse into the electronic instruments’ potential. The Dewanatron website describes that the purpose of each unique instrument “is to grow music live in collaboration with the operators who guide them.” We learn Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo are among the many musicians who have purchased Dewanatrons.
Brian Dewan is also a musician, and the film includes several performances and a variety of instruments, including an accordion he uses during a performance for a small crowd at Olana and a zither, which he sings along with on his back porch. In one particular number, Dewan skewers the incompetence and short-sightedness of municipal planners. There is also Dewan, the visual artist. The film does not mention the album art Dewan created for acts like David Byrne and Neutral Milk Hotel, but we witness some of his drawings come to life from their earliest stages as the film follows Dewan creating one of his filmstrips for an upcoming show in Brooklyn. Dewan reminisces about the early memories of seeing filmstrips and the awe they inspired as he works on a drawing in his home. In many ways, Dewan’s filmstrip creations distill his many talents into one. To create them, he must first draw each frame (or slide), which is then projected onto a screen combining an audio component that includes music and tones from his Dewanatrons and his narration for each slide, which can range from cartoonish to societal commentary. As you can imagine, the performative filmstrips require quite a bit of preparation, some of which we see in the short film. The filmstrip Dewan completes in “Analog Dreams” is called “What Will You Do with Your Freedom?” In its brevity, the film accomplishes many things in introducing us to the multi-media artist. Perhaps its most significant achievement is giving us an idea of how Brian Dewan might answer his own question. What will Brian Dewan do with his freedom? He’ll create.
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