2024 SCREENINGS: Thursday

In a blend of documentary style investigation, and mockumentary style storytelling, Baby Teeth explores themes of childhood memories, motherhood, familial relationships, and what it means to “know”. At the heart of the film, is a discussion of family history, and motherhood between a mother and daughter. Woven in, are personal anecdotes that act as a lens through which to view the themes and ideas presented. The vessel that carries the heart of this story is a mockumentary investigation into the tooth fairy, one which often crosses and blurs the lines of reality and truth.

There are few things I love more in this world than a good thriller. I love them. Any genre can be twisted into a thriller, with enough tension, suspense, the inevitable twist ending that changes the way you perceive the rest of the film.

Frankie or (The Insane Amount of Loneliness One Feels When Being Pursued by the Government) is a perfect example of an unsuspecting genre being snatched up and transformed into a thriller. Frankie is a regular teen, facing regular problems. She wants to pass her history test next week. She wants to ask her crush out to the dance. She wants to get into a good college. But all of that changes, quite literally, overnight. What will happen to her? Who will help? And can she figure out what’s going on before it’s too late?

Frankie tackles topics of the stresses of everyday life, and takes inspiration from those confusing, inexplicable moments that happen to you at three in the morning.

I’ve always been fascinated with nature, and this has carried over into many of my films. For this film specifically, I wanted to make use of the ever-changing nature of plants and the outdoors to convey the idea of change over time and coming to a conclusion about something. I was inspired by the inherent fact that nothing stays the same, and also by my own personal feelings when trying to organize my thoughts. It was my goal to try and bring this feeling to life, and allow viewers to be able to see it represented visually. Representing feelings and thought process with visuals can be difficult to show in a way that is accessible to the viewer, so it was part of my goal to make it recognizable.

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I have always been drawn to thriller and mystery films. When I make a film I always try to make it suspenful but more importantly I want to put the human emotion in my films. That is what I was striving while I was writing ERZEN. I want to create a mystery/thriller film while still retaining the emotions at the end. I wanted the film to have multiple locations so that the film would flow and keep the audience engaged and on the edge of their seat while watching it. In my films I deal with characters that have gone through a lot in life and in ERZEN I wrote my characters with that in my mind. I like to explore the human condition in my films.

Death is weird. The inevitable can be terrifying. What happens after the heart rate monitor flat lines is a mystery no one can solve. All we can ask is when, how and why. I want to ask, what if? And give him a hat.

Clementine lies somewhere between a western, a drama, and an abstract take on life, death and unconditional love. Augustus, a cowboy from the 1800’s, is physically unable to die until he faces his mistakes and delusions head on, or should I say skull on. In the present day, he has to get from Point A to Point B with nothing but a map, a train ticket, a stolen car and a letter to the wife he mistakenly killed.

Could love triumph over an unforgivable mistake? Could guilt take hold of the mind and shape it to haunt you? Does your life flash before your eyes in a life threatening moment? Or are you saying your goodbyes in your head? Does a clementine feel good when you crush it in the palm of your hand? Or does the juice seeping into the crevasses between your fingers remind you of the blood on your hands?

As an artist, I think of necessity and desire to initiate desires with myself. I look at the body as a vessel that is constant need of new things; We change and reflect and ask ourselves who we were and assess how far we’ve come constantly true life so at the beginning of this thought process to birth this piece, I knew I wanted to make something that was encapsulating a journey. Not just any journey, but the journey of being true to a dream. 

Pillars stands as a marker for all artists alike paving their way trying to make a name for themselves. Through the medium of film, I strive to explore the complexities of the human experience, capturing moments of beauty, pain , joy and resilience with honesty and authenticity. This was the hardest and most vulnerable film I’ve worked on up to date. Not only for the fact that it’s changed so much in its entirety but I’ve given it so much thought about what it deals with on a personal level and who it’s talking to. Ultimately, my goal as a filmmaker is not just to entertain, but to provoke thought, spark emotion, and inspire change. In some small essence, it addresses the thought of enjoying what you make as an artist and losing that part of yourself because it seems like something you used to love doing in your younger self. The weight of the world; The Pillar in essence forces you in different directions bending your will from who you want to be.

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North Andromedoma is a film that lives in the uneasy threshold between dreaming and remembrance. I developed the idea like how I normally assemble poetry ideas. One image that either came from memory or a dream becomes the basis for an entire world of images to unravel. (I encourage you to guess what image might’ve been the catalyst). This film in particular was driven entirely by dreaming and my determination to see how I can bring that feeling of dream walking to the viewer.

DISQUIET chronicles the story of Don, a heteronymous personality channeled into being by the mind of the Speaker. Through the Speaker’s voice Don’s story unfolds. His words command the space they inhabit, making it shift and turn. Becoming a flow of consciousness of aural and visual observations accompanying the curated verses of Don’s wordsmithing. This is all weaved together with an introductory depiction of the Speaker. 

 This project is an ode to imagination. It explores verbal expression, language, identity and connection. The ghost of personal time racing against collective time, psychosocial development and wellbeing, and heteronyms and imaginary friends. These concepts create a testament of enduring passive trauma resulting from selective mutism, all by virtue of imagination. This film is a semi-autobiographical portrayal, and the “what if” of not being the person I am today, but instead a smaller version of myself: The way people saw me, the way I saw myself. With this film I hope to let the world know that, away from it all, I made my own world, my own lore, and that it completes me.

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Humanzee is somewhere between an exploration into the relationship between routine and suppression, and the kind of movie you’d find on TV after your parents went to bed. You can never quite remember the name of it, but it’s haunted you since. Having begun life as a feature film concept about a novice primatologist in a CIA facility, and eventually two separate attempts at short films – the idea has whittled itself down over nearly three years into the quieter, more intimate version that now exists. There’s a creeping darkness to life, often nestled comfortably alongside the warmth, humor, hope, and love. It can be indistinguishable from brushing your teeth or cutting your toenails or tipping your Uber driver, until it rears its head and shows you what you already knew. In fleeting moments you may ask yourself who you are and what you believe in, and the void echoes back with its own parabolic questions. A question like…

What is a Humanzee? 

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