Dave Cerf works at the intersection of film editing, sound design, music, live performance, and software design. Over the last two decades, Dave has collaborated on a tour of abandoned drive-in movie screenings, a live documentary (Utopia in Four Movements with Sam Green), dance performances (Alone Together with choreographer Catherine Galasso), Internet radio streaming (with sound artist Fausto Cáceres), and Pop-Up Magazine, a “live magazine” presented on stage. Dave and members of his chamber ensemble Threnody Ensemble composed music for Sam Green’s The Weather Underground and the experimental films of Pat O’Neill and Jennifer Reeves. He composed the sound and music for Todo lo demás and Users—the most recent films by Mexican filmmaker Natalia Almada—working with Marc Ribot, Claire Chase, and Kronos Quartet.

Deeply dissatisfied with available tools of the trade, Dave worked for eight years at Apple as an interface designer for Final Cut Pro X and wrote several editions of the 2400-page user manual. Still deeply dissatisfied with the available tools, he began investigating alternative sound and video representations with Robert M. Ochshorn at Alan Kay’s Xerox PARC reboot CDG (now DynamicLand), helmed by Bret Victor. At the same time, he assisted sound and picture editor Walter Murch on two feature films: Hemingway and Gellhorn (HBO) and Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland (Disney). There was also a 6-month detour to volunteer at the Dalai Lama’s video archive in Dharamsala, India as well as a performance about his personal history told via the rise and fall of public pay phones.