The George Manupelli papers, 1961-2013, consist of correspondence, photography, artwork, and clippings relating to his work in the avant-garde art world.
George Manupelli was born on September 29, 1931 in Boston's North End. He received bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and Fine Arts Education from the Massachusetts School of Art in 1952. Manupelli also received master's degree and doctoral degree in Fine Arts and Fine Arts Education from Columbia University.
Manupelli taught at York University of Toronto, Ontario College of Art, and Central Michigan University. He served as Associate Professor of Art at the University of Michigan's School of Art (presently Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design) from 1962-1972. He later was a faculty member and then Dean at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he won a Clio award in 1982 for his admissions video "Father Guido Sarducci on Art School."
During his time in Ann Arbor in the 1960s, Manupelli founded the Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF), the longest running independent and experimental film festival in North America. The First American Film Festival, as it was called at the time, took place in 1963 at the University of Michigan's old Architecture and Design Auditorium. Since 1980, the AAFF has been independent of the University of Michigan as an independent non-profit arts organization.
Films presented for the second festival were judged by iconic film critic Pauline Kael. Manupelli served as the festival director for 17 years. As the AAFF founder and director, he envisioned a festival that would serve experimental and pioneering filmmakers. He designed the festival to be open to anyone who saw filmmaking as art. Thousands of influential filmmakers and artists have exhibited early work at the AAFF, including Kenneth Anger, Agnes Varda, Andy Warhol, Gus Van Sant, Barbara Hammer, George Lucas, Les Blank, Matthew Buckingham, and James Benning.
In 2009 Manupelli came back to the University of Michigan campus to deliver a lecture in the Penny Stamps Speaker Series that brings respected innovators from a broad spectrum of fields to the School of Art & Design. When AAFF marked its milestone 50th anniversary in 2012, Manupelli traveled to Ann Arbor from his home in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, despite his failing health.
Manupelli was a member of the ONCE Group, an Ann Arbor based collective of artists, architects, musicians, and dancers who were creating work in the early 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he served as Cultural Representative of the United States to Nicaragua and founded the Aid to Arts of Nicaragua to fund art development.
A pioneer in experimental film since 1955, Manupelli won numerous international awards, including the 1964 Venice and 1965 Sao Paulo Biennials, and the Avant Garde Film Masters Award in 2007 for his 1970s film trilogy "Dr. Chicago." Manupelli's films are preserved at the Anthology Film Archives of New York.
George Manupelli died in Bethlehem, New Hampshire on September 14, 2014. The 2015 (53rd) annual AAFF paid tribute to Manupelli and established the George Manupelli Founder's Spirit Award.
