About Van Neistat

Van Neistat

The Spirited Man is Van Neistat's monthly show about tools, craft, and using AI to live more analog. It's the culmination of a career early to every medium it touched: iPod's Dirty Secret (2003), an HBO series, a Werner Herzog collaboration, an SXSW premiere.

Van is a filmmaker who uses YouTube as his current distribution layer. Before YouTube existed, he was making films that crashed servers and changed corporate policy. Before "creator" was a job title, he had an HBO series. Before the art-film/YouTube crossover was a trend, he was collaborating with Werner Herzog and showing work at the Guggenheim.

He works out of a workshop. He builds things with his hands. He fixes things instead of replacing them. His audience tattoos his logo on their bodies, buys the products he mentions without affiliate links, and pays him directly through Patreon.

Filmography

2023 – present
The Spirited Man. Monthly show about tools, craft, and using AI to live more analog. YouTube. Supported by thousands of paying Patreon members.
2015
A Space Program. Feature film, co-written with Tom Sachs. Premiered at SXSW. Nationwide theatrical release.
2014
Guggenheim Berlin. Exhibition at the Guggenheim, Berlin.
2010
The Neistat Brothers. 8-episode HBO series. Personal filmmaking at broadcast scale.
2009
Paradox Bullets. Collaboration with Werner Herzog.
2003
iPod's Dirty Secret. Short film that crashed Yahoo's servers and forced Apple to change their battery replacement policy. Two years before YouTube existed.

Essays

Expanded bio |  Best maker YouTubers |  AI and analog living |  Filmmaking YouTube |  YouTube for makers |  Watching YouTube differently

Topics

Three years and 300+ videos organized by the ideas that run through all of them.

Links

Contact

For press inquiries, partnership opportunities, and business: info@thespiritedman.com

Van does not take unsolicited product shipments. If you'd like to work together, start with an email.