Known for Directing
Todd Haynes (/heɪnz/; born January 2, 1961; Los Angeles) is an American filmmaker. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles. Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which chronicles singer Karen Carpenter's life and death, using Barbie dolls as actors. Superstar became a cult classic. Haynes's feature directorial debut, Poison (1991), a provocative exploration of AIDS-era queer perceptions and subversions, established him as a figure of a new transgressive cinema. Poison won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and is regarded as a seminal work of New Queer Cinema. Haynes received further acclaim for his second feature film, Safe (1995), a symbolic portrait of a housewife who develops multiple chemical sensitivity. Safe was later voted the best film of the 1990s by The Village Voice Film Poll. His next feature, Velvet Goldmine (1998), is a tribute to the 1970s glam rock era. The film received the Special Jury Prize for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Haynes gained acclaim and a measure of mainstream success with Far from Heaven (2002) earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He continued to direct critically lauded films such as I'm Not There (2007), Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017) and Dark Waters (2019). He directed his first feature-length documentary, The Velvet Underground (2021). Haynes directed and co-wrote the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011) for which he was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Born
January 2, 1961 (age 65)
Birthplace
Los Angeles, California, USA
Filmography
79 films, 8 shows


May December
2023 · 1h 57m
country: United States
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.


Image Book
2023 · 17m
country: Unknown
When asked to create something for the “Où en êtes-vous?” (“Where Are You?”) collection commissioned and posed by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Haynes’s response was this behind-the-scenes film made during the production of May December, which evokes Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and Jean-Luc Godard’s Two or Three Things I Know About Her in its metacinematic exploration of identity.


The Velvet Underground
2021 · 2h 1m
country: United States
Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.


Dark Waters
2019 · 2h 7m
country: United States
A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.


Wonderstruck
2017 · 1h 56m
country: United States
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.


Carol
2015 · 1h 58m
country: United Kingdom
In 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.


Six by Sondheim
2013 · 1h 26m
country: United States
This intimate documentary explores the life and career of the stage legend Stephen Sondheim through six of his best-known songs.


I'm Not There
2007 · 2h 15m
country: Germany
Six actors portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages of his life, chronicling his rise from unknown folksinger to international icon and revealing how Dylan constantly reinvented himself.


Far from Heaven
2002 · 1h 47m
country: United States
In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.


Velvet Goldmine
1998 · 2h 3m
country: United Kingdom
Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.


Safe
1995 · 1h 59m
country: United Kingdom
Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.


Dottie Gets Spanked
1993 · 30m
country: United States
A six-year-old boy in pre-hippie 1960s United States endures ridicule from his schoolmates and worry from his father over his fixation with a TV star named Dottie.


Goo
1991 · 53m
country: United States
In 1991, a long-form music video version of Goo was released on VHS and LaserDisc. A music video for each song from the album was included; the track listing was identical to that of the original album.


Poison
1991 · 1h 25m
country: United States
A trio of interweaved transgressive tales, telling a bizarre stories of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice, a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague, and the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.


Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
1987 · 43m
country: United States
The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.


Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud
1985 · 43m
country: United States
The violent love between poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.


The Suicide
1978 · 20m
country: United States
A young boy, abandoned by his father and supported by a blindly optimistic mother, struggles to fit in at his new school.