47. Bill Bilowit

In honor of our MasterMind genius awards, Cultist proudly presents "100 Creatives," where we feature Miami's cultural superheroes in random order. Have suggestions for future profiles? Email [email protected] with the whos and whys.

47. Bill Bilowit

Over the phone, Bill Bilowit's voice is deceiving. He sounds youthful and energetic. But the 53-year-old filmmaker isn't exactly a wide-eyed aspiring auteur. In the '90s, Bilowit owned a boutique production company doing work for corporate clients. He and his wife, Grela Orihuela, moved to Miami from New York in 1996 looking for a place to clear their heads. "Technology had gotten better that it really didn't matter where we worked from," Bilowit explains. But it was during Art Basel week in 2007 that Bilowit and Orihuela founded the Wet Heat Project, serving as the unofficial documentation of Miami's emerging art scene.

"We weren't looking for something to document. We were just looking to move into fiction and documentary film."

But what is it about Miami's art scene that makes it such an interesting to film?

"It's fresh and unassuming," Bilowit retorts. "People here aren't looking to follow the steps of another movement. [Miami artists] are following their own voice."

The Wet Heat has actually spun out in several smaller projects that include miamiHeights, which has followed the emergence of local artists Hernan Bas and Bert Rodriguez, and WetHeat.tv, a collection of short films, which show the people, places, and events behind the city's rise to the global art stage.

1. List five things that inspire you.

The five (known) human senses.

2. What was your last big project?

As part of our Wet Heat Project efforts for 2010, we finished the year with a new event-film project called HOTBED Miami, which provided a platform for Miami art students to stage a performative installation at Fountain Art Fair during Basel week.

3. What's your next big project?

Besides premiering new films on our wetheat.tv online network, we're planning a March 2010 home-town premiere of our feature documentary film on the conceptual artist Bert Rodriguez.

4. Why do you do what you do?

Everything else is deadly boring.

5. What's something you want Miami to know about you?

My tireless abuse of substances in the '80s burned out some key memory functions, this the explanation (not excuse) for not remembering a name or placing a face.

What's something you don't want Miami to know about you?

Something about burned out memory functions, I think.

The Creatives so far:

48. Alette Simmons-Jimenez
49. Tawnie Silva
50. Ginger Bardot
51. Jonathan David Kane
52. Naomi Fisher
53. Rocky Grimes
54. Teresa Barcelo
55. Paul Tei
56. Lee Materazzi