Mike Mills speaking to film students at the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television in Tucson, AZ (http://tftv.arizona.edu/) as part of Sundance Film Forward 2012. Filmed by Damon Mosier and Dan Brock. Video edited by Chris Cegielski. FILM FORWARD is a cultural exchange program designed to enhance cross-cultural understanding, collaboration and dialogue around the globe by engaging audiences through the exhibition of film and conversation with filmmakers. FILM FORWARD is an Initiative of Sundance Institute and The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. "Cinema, both fiction and non-fiction, has shown over and over that as human beings, we share values beyond any border, real or imagined." - Robert Redford, President and Founder of the Sundance Institute FILM FORWARD creates cultural exchange with ten films in nine locations around the globe. Tucson was selected as one of three U.S. cities to host this cultural initiative, with The Loft Cinema being the presenting venue! FILM FORWARD locations around the world include: Arizona, California, Puerto Rico, Oklahoma, China, Colombia, France, India, Morocco. Venue partners in Arizona include: University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film and Television; University of Arizona Middle Eastern Studies and North African Studies; University of Arizona School of Journalism; Tohono O'odham Nation Recreation Center in Sells, AZ; Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church; Tucson Museum of Art; Tucson Chinese Cultural Center. Mike Mills works as a filmmaker, graphic designer, and artist. As a filmmaker, he has completed a number of music videos, commercials, short films, documentaries and feature films. His short films have premiered at the Sundance, Oberhausen, Stockholm International, New Directors/New Films and Rotterdam film festivals. He adapted and directed his first feature, THUMBSUCKER (2005), from Walter Kirn’s novel of the same name. The movie won awards at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals for lead actor Lou Taylor Pucci, and Mr. Mills was honored with the Guardian New Directors award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. His next feature as director was the documentary DOES YOUR SOUL HAVE A COLD? (2007). In 1996, he and Roman Coppola co-founded The Directors Bureau (TDB), a multidisciplinary production company through which he has directed music videos for such bands as Air, Pulp, Everything but the Girl, Les Rythmes Digitales, Moby, Yoko Ono, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; and commercials for such clients as Levi’s, Gap, Volkswagen, Adidas and Nike as part of their international campaigns. As a graphic artist, Mr. Mills has designed album covers for such bands as Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys, Boss Hog, and Buffalo Daughter; and has also done extensive work for companies such as X-girl, Marc Jacobs, and Supreme. He has had solo art shows at the Andrea Rosen Gallery (1996); Adam Bray Gallery in London (1997); The Alleged Gallery (1996, 2001, and 2004); The Collette Gallery (1998); and The Mu Museum in Holland (2004). His work was featured in the “Beautiful Losers” exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and at the Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Francisco, as well as in Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard’s documentary feature BEAUTIFUL LOSERS (2008). A monograph of his work, Mike Mills: Graphics Films, was published by Damiani in 2009. Mr. Mills was born in Berkeley, California and graduated from Cooper Union.