John Bright Mann is a filmmaker and Senior Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. His work reflects a thematic concern for an idea of home, begun with his dissertation, A Phenomenological Inquiry into a Concept of Home.
His documentary films include “Shelter: Conversations with Homeless Men”, “Nicodemus”,
“Locust Point”, “Running to Keep from Falling” , and a personal essay film “if...then...”. Mann's
dance for the camera projects (in collaboration with Susan Mann, choreographer) include
“breathe in...breathe out”, “It Goes Without Saying”, and “Flight”. His films have screened at
various festivals including the Black Maria Film Festival, the International Screen Dance Festival,
the Richmond International Film Festival, California International Short Film Festival,
Ethnografilm Festival (Paris), Seattle International Film Festival, and the Athens International
Film Festival. “Locust Point” was included in the national series American Independents
Mann's theoretical interests center around the ideas of poets (Rilke, Holderlin), philosophers
(Heidegger, Foucault, Bachelard, Sloterdijk), writers (W.G.Sebald and Annie Dillard), and
musicians (John Adams, Charles Ives).