Bionic Buzz® covered San Diego Comic Con 2023. There we covered the red carpet of The Secret Cities of Mark Kistler Documentary at the San Diego Arts Center. This was a screening the day after the world premiere during the film festival of SDCC 2023. It won best documentary at the film festival! Check out our interviews with Jason Corgan Brown (Award-winning Filmmaker & Director of The Secret Cities of Mark Kistler), Joel Richard (Gori Zebtro in Secret City and Artistic Director at Metamorphosis Performance) and Mark Kistler (Starred in the 1980’s Public Television Children’s Series “The Secret City!”).
Imagination Films and Corgan Pictures present the untold story of the prolific art educator behind the beloved 80’s and 90’s TV shows The Secret City, Draw Squad, and Imagination Station. Mark Kistler became a well-known face on classic PBS alongside Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Bob Ross, and Reading Rainbow. He helped shape a pivotal era of instructional programming for children in the pre-YouTube world, teaching 3D drawing before CGI. With over one-million books sold, the Emmy-award-winning host continues to inspire audiences through his elaborate hand-drawn worlds and unique teaching philosophies. The original 1986 TV series, The Secret City, was broadcast nationwide and was produced by flagship PBS station, Maryland Public Television. The world premiere was screened will at the San Diego Comic-Con. The Secret Cities of Mark Kistler is directed and produced by Jason Corgan Brown through his Corgan Pictures banner in collaboration with Robert Neustadt and Kenneth Welch.
The feature documentary features guests such as Joel Gori (actor who played Zebtron), Dan Fraga (Superman, Spiderman Comic Book Artist), Tim Decker (Simpsons Animator, former head of interactive at Disney), Jack Moore (NASA), and more.
Over the past 44 years, Mark Kistler has taught millions of children how-to-draw on his Public Television Series The Secret City in the 1980’s and The Imagination Station in the 1990’s.
He has presented thousands of K-12 Visual Arts School Assemblies around the world including; Australia, Germany, England, Scotland, Mexico, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Dubai, India, France, Ireland, Tonga, and the United States. With over 1 million books sold and translated into various languages, Mark’s Simon & Schuster titles include “Learn to Draw with Commander Mark,” “Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad,” “Mark Kistler’s Imagination Station” and “Drawing in 3-D with Mark Kistler.” His four books series with Scholastic Publishers is titled “Dare-to-Draw in 3-D!” More recent books published by Da Capo Press include “You Can Draw in 30-Days” and “You Can Draw in 30-Minutes.” His August 2022 release is from Hachete publishers, entitled “Half Hour Of Pencil Power!”
As a result of his television series, drawing books, and school appearances Mark Kistler has generated over one million fan letters and emails containing 3-D drawings from children around the world. Mark is based in Texas where he teaches virtually three times a week, but also appears live at camps, schools and Comicon-type conventions.
Video edit & interviews by Steve Sievers of Bionic Buzz.
Connect:
https://corganpictures.com/
https://www.markkistler.com/
https://www.facebook.com/artistmarkkistler/
Steve Sievers with Mark Kistler at The Secret Cities of Mark Kistler Documentary San Diego Comic-Con After Party at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, CA.