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Published on 06/23/1999 All articles from this issue

Los Altos-raised film director gets rave reviews, awards

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By Susan Kerr

Special to the Town Crier

Resident Profile

he road from Los Altos to Hollywood wasn't direct or easy for film and music video director Jon Reiss - but success seems to be the next stop on his route.

Reiss, who is now 32 and a resident of Los Angeles, grew up in Los Altos.

He recently won the Best First Feature award at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose for his film "Cleopatra's Second Husband."

After receiving positive reviews from Daily Variety, among others, the film has been picked up by an independent distributor, and is scheduled for a 10-city release this fall.

Reiss wrote the film, and received help in financing the $180,000 budget from his parents, who still live in the Los Altos house they bought when Reiss was 8.

The dark psychological drama is about a Los Angeles couple who return to find that their house sitters have trashed the house and won't leave. Reviewers have compared the evolving twists and turns in the two couples' relationship in "Cleopatra's Second Husband" to those in such classic films as "The Servant" and "Rosemary's Baby."

A veteran director of approximately 30 music videos, Reiss gained international attention when he directed "Happiness in Slavery," a music video for the band Nine Inch Nails. Despite being banned by MTV for its unsettling images of flesh and blood, the video won Reiss several awards and was voted Top Ten in the Village Voice Critics' Poll.

Reiss currently is busy completing production on a documentary feature on the rave scene, to be called "Better Living Through Circuitry."

The darkness and isolation of some of his work may seem at odds with a Los Altos childhood, but it makes sense to Reiss.

"I can definitely say that the suburban angst I grew up with influenced my script for ('Cleopatra's Second Husband')," he said. "I had a hard time growing up in the suburbs. I never fit in and always felt like an outsider. Some of that definitely comes across in my work."

Despite his obvious love for the film profession, Reiss found his way to it almost by accident. He attended the now-closed Grant Elementary School and Homestead High School before attending the University of California at Berkeley. "I had a passing interest in film but they wouldn't even let me take a film class at Berkeley," Reiss said

As Reiss was completing his degree in economics, set to attend graduate school at Stanford University, something inside clicked.

"I started wondering if this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life," Reiss said. To get out of attending Stanford, he told the university he couldn't afford it. That excuse didn't fly; he was offered a scholarship. "I didn't tell my parents about the scholarship until years later," Reiss said. "They weren't happy with my decision not to go to graduate school."

Instead, Reiss worked for Target Video in San Francisco and rose in the ranks from sweeping the floors to cameraman. He later directed four documentaries featuring the notorious performance group, Survival Research Laboratories. Reiss was awarded an MFA from the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles Film School - which helped make up somewhat to his parents for passing up Stanford, he said.

Reiss is married to Jill Goldman, who is also a producer. The couple has a 3-year-old son.

Reflecting on his career so far, Reiss said that he would enjoy doing another narrative film but . . .

"I wouldn't mind getting paid next time," he added.