Paul Clipson, Filmmaker Who Worked With Grouper and Others, Dead at 54

Experimental filmmaker Paul Clipson has died, KQED reports. He passed “unexpectedly” on February 3 at the age of 53. His cause of death is unknown. The acclaimed artist collaborated with musicians such as Grouper, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, How to Dress Well, Lawrence English, Sarah Davachi, Maggi Payne, and Black Spirituals. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Clipson grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and later moved to San Francisco in the 1990s, where he became a mainstay within its art scene. There, Clipson began making visuals for experimental musicians while working as a film projectionist at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art for the past two decades.

In 2015, he joined post-rock group Tarantel alongside multi-instrumentalist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma as their full-time visual artist. Cantu-Ledesma and Maxwell August Croy of the Root Strata label have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for Clipson’s funeral and memorial costs.