Steve Hanft


title: "Steve Hanft" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "musicians-from-california", "artists-from-california", "writers-from-california", "people-from-ventura,-california", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hanft" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

Steve Hanft (born May 1966) is an American music video and film director.

Early life

Steven Hanft was born in Ventura, California. He has an MFA in Experimental Narrative Film from CalArts.

Career

Steve Hanft has directed music videos for recording artists such as The Cure "Gone!", Delinquent Habits "Tres Delinquentes" & "Return of the Tres", Primal Scream "Kowalski" (written by Irvine Welsh and featuring Kate Moss and Devon Aoki), Spoon "The Way We Get By", and for Beck, including "Pay No Mind - Snoozer" (featuring Mark Gonzales), "Where it's At" (shot by Lance Acord), "Jack-ass" (featuring Willie Nelson), and "The Golden Age."

The video Steve Hanft directed for Beck, "Loser", received three nominations at the MTV Music Video Awards in 1994 including "Best Male Video", "Best New Artist In A Video", and "Best Alternative Video."

In 1996, the video Steve Hanft directed for "Where it's At" won the MTV Music Video Award for "Best Male Video" and was chosen to be the first video aired on MTV2. In 1998, Steve Hanft directed an experimental documentary featuring Academy Award nominated composer Elliott Smith promoting the album "XO" called Strange Parallel which debuted at the CMJ Film Fest.

From 2004 to 2008 Steve Hanft documented the resurgence of Jamaican sound system music in Los Angeles, resulting in the 2008 documentary, Return of the Rub-A-Dub Style. The documentary features performances and interviews with U-Roy, Sister Nancy, Scientist, and Ranking Joe. Sunglass Catch a 2007 video Steve Hanft produced and co-starred in, has been named one of "The 10 Most Important Youtube Videos" according to Business Insider and won a Cannes Bronze Lion.

"Where it's At" was referred to in the title the 2009 LA Film Fest event "Where it Was At: A Propaganda & Satellite Films Tribute," a panel featuring Steve Golin, Nigel Dick, Danielle Peretz, and Steve Hanft, moderated by Laurie Malaga.

In 2018, Steve Hanft wrote the action suspense screenplay Crocodile Rock commissioned by Chris Murphy. In February 2024, Hanft directed and created the film clip for Darren Cross, A Harebrained Adventure Of An Amateur Shaman.

References

References

  1. Radio, N. T. S.. "Steve Hanft {{!}} Discover music on NTS".
  2. (2021-08-01). "MTV2 turns 25: How launching with Beck's 'Where It's At' changed the music industry forever". Far Out Magazine.
  3. "Elliott Smith Documentary To Premiere At CMJ Film Fest".
  4. (2008-08-03). ""Return of the Rub-A-Dub Style" @ Silent Movie Theatre 7-31-08".
  5. "Ray-ban: "SUNGLASS CATCH" Digital Advert by Cutwater San Francisco - AdsSpot Advertising Archive".
  6. "The 10 most important Youtube videos of all time".
  7. States, Cutwater United. "Ray-Ban - "Sunglass Catch"".
  8. (2009-06-25). "Interested in Music Video Production? Come to LA Film Fest".
  9. (16 February 2024). "Watch: D.C Cross - A Harebrained Adventure of an Amateur Shaman (Tune of the Day)".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

living-peoplemusicians-from-californiaartists-from-californiawriters-from-californiapeople-from-ventura,-californiayear-of-birth-missing-(living-people)