Eames Demetrios

Eames Demetrios was born in San Francisco in 1962. His interest in film as a youth culminated in his seeing over 500 movies his senior year in high school. Demetrios went to Harvard University where he received a BA in 1984, after taking a year off for his first feature effort, a 16mm featurette. He moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and began working freelance for many production companies in various capacities, including shooting and editing segments for ABC's 20/20 and a Universal Pictures feature.

Since 1985, Demetrios has made about 20 films and videos of various lengths and types, including: Carpool: August 21, 1992, funded by a prestigious Long Beach Museum of Art Open Channels grant; Breakthrough: A Portrait of Aristides Demetrios, about his father, the San Francisco sculptor; Malibu/Old Topanga Fire Time Lapse Loop, time lapse footage of the three days of the 1993 fire, was featured at the New Canyon Gallery's healing exhibit of artworks arising from the devastation; and 901: after 45 years of working, a document of The Office of Charles and Ray Eames in Venice, CA and a record of its closing. "Highly recommended" by Sheila Benson of the LA Times, 901 has gained a strong following since appearing at Sundance in 1992, including the coveted 1995 Earthwatch Award.

That year also saw the release of The Giving and Common Knowledge, two feature length projects written, produced, and directed by Demetrios. Released by Northern Arts Entertainment, The Giving is a black-and-white 35mm fiction film about a computer programmer who reprograms the ATMs at his bank to give money to the homeless in a version of LA where the wilderness is taking over the city and the freeways are turning into rivers. KUSF Radio hailed it as "one of the five best films of the year," and it won a Gold Medal for Best First Feature at the Houston Film Festival. In the fall came the completion of his years-in-the-making documentary epic, Common Knowledge: An Oral History of 1988. Demetrios interviewed the same 28 people every 3 weeks for an entire year to take a timelapse portrait of life in the media age. It premiered on KCET-TV, the Los Angeles' public television station, to glowing reviews. Demetrios' films have received numerous honors, including the CINE Golden Eagle, "Pick-of-the-Week" from LA Weekly, and Best of the AFI Film Festival from the LA Reader. Other projects include They, for KCET-TV and The Biology of Limbo, a feature about a man who puts his life on hold to win a frivolous lawsuit

Today, Eames Demetrios is a principal in the Eames Office, dedicated to comunicating, preserving, and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames. His projects there include multimedia production, printed materials, toys, exhibition design, filmmaking and much more. Most recently, Eames Demetrios is completing a fascinating new CD-ROM based on the classic short educational film, Powers of Ten.

Demetrios lives with his wife and two sons in Los Angeles, California.

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