29 min. color, sound, DV, Completed October 2008
My film essay “I Covered My Eyes” explores the reconciliation of my early memories of witnessing tragic televised events in the nineteen seventies and early eighties with my current understanding of their traumatic influence. Using experimental formal strategies and text commentary, these images are interspersed with my family’s own contemporaneous home movies—portraying an idealized portrait of childhood—to create a patchwork of conflicted memory from both the public and private spheres.
Awards:
- Third Prize, Experimental Category, MAGA, Macon Film and Video Festival, 2009
- Third Prize, Video >10 mins, FLEX FEST, Florida Experimental Film and Video Festival, 2009
- Recycled Cinema Award, SUFF, Sydney Underground Film Festival, 2009
Screenings:
- SCREEN: Works in Progress, MIT, Joan Jonas Auditorium, Cambridge, MA, March 2007
- Hartford International Film Festival, Art Cinema, Hartford, CT, November 2008
- International Film Festival Rotterdam, New Arrivals, Rotterdam, Netherlands, January, 2009
- FLEX FEST, Florida Experimental Film and Video Festival, Gainsville, FL, February, 2009
- MAGA, Macon Film and Video Festival, Macon, GA, February, 2009
- The End of Television, Ian Page, programmer, Pittsburg, PA, June, 2009
- Globians World and Culture Documentary Film Festival, Berlin, Germany, August, 2009
- Sydney Underground Film Festival, September, 2009
- Woodstock Museum 10th Annual Film Festival, Woodstock, NY, September, 2009
- Online New England Film Festival, September - October, 2009
- Chashama Film Festival, New York, NY, October, 2009
Windows onto Montebello Rd. (in post production)
28 min., color, sound, 16mm, 2009
In this experimental narrative, set in 1998-1999, an apartment becomes a self-imposed hideaway sanctuary, where a cinematographer tries to focus only on his windows to the outside, despite the encroaching pre-millenial political fears.
Screenings:
- SCREEN: Works in Progress, MIT, Joan Jonas Auditorium, Cambridge, MA, March 2007
Porch Film: 76 Day St. #2
20 min., color, sound, 16mm, 2004
A domestic pastoral, summertime on a back porch, the sound track a mixed tape of emotions.
Screenings:
- Athens International Film Festival, experimental category, Athens, OH, April 2004
- 29th Annual New England Film and Video Festival, Boston, MA, October 2004
- Darla’s Choice Cuts, Art Interactive, Cambridge, MA, March 2006
- Harvard Film Archive, “New England Filmmakers See in the Dark,” Cambridge, MA, April
2007
- Frames Per Second, Guest Artist, Emerson College, Bill Bordy Theater, Boston, MA, November 2007
Aquarium
7.5 min., color, sound, DV, 2004
With composer John Morrison
“Aquarium” is marked by its emphasis on immersion and fluidity. For the film itself, those characteristics will be immediately apparent, and both the collaborative approach and music share them as well. The Super 8 film was collected over a number of years from visits to several aquariums, and visually brings the viewer through a series of impressions from immersion in a dream-like, aquatic realm. The music is the result of interacting layers of improvisation and more fully conscious control. The source of all sounds is a set of improvised, experimental violin sounds produced by the composer some years ago, which were then manipulated by a software sampling program. Structural underpinnings in the film led to alignments at critical spots between image and sound, and also resulted in some unexpected outcomes.
Screenings:
- Composers and Filmmakers, a collaborative performance, Paine Hall, Harvard University, May 2004
- Plymouth Independent Film Festival, Plymouth, MA, July 2006
- Electro-Acoustics, New Music with Film and Video, Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA, November 2006
- Outside the Lines Studio, Mike Piso, Curator, Sommerville, MA, September 2008
Them! 1955 revisited.
6 min., B+W, sound, video, 1999
A recasting of a B Sci-Fi movie foregrounding the psychological fears of Cold War culture and the potential for technology going awry.
Screenings:
- Aliens: Art From and About Elsewhere, Curated by Kaniska Raja, Gallery @ Green St., Boston, MA, 1999
- The Bit Screen Online Media Festival, Druid Media, Online festival for Video and Film Shorts, 1999
- Artifice and Manipulations, Project “Think Different”, Western Front, Cambridge, MA, 2000
- Video Balagan, Local Masters Show, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA, 2001
- Filmmakers Working Digitally, Curated by Sabrina Zanella-Foresi, Video Space, Boston, MA, 2001
- Altered States, Curated by Elizabeth Hall, The Astor Hotel, Miami Beach, FL, 2002
This is a Film about Mars...
70 min., color, sound, 16mm, 1997
This personal film explores the subject of "Mars" in the form of a visual essay, broken into fragmented associational ideas. The filmmaker’s father, a clinician and believer in the truths of science, reads prepared narration that speaks to the factual and authoritative hypotheses about the history of Mars and its significance in our future. His monologues deal with the past and present perceptions of the planet: the science of terra forming—the conversion of an uninhabitable planet to one favorable to terrestrials, the potential discoveries in the strata of Mars’ surface, and other expositions on the cosmological and astronomical relationship between Earth and Mars in myth and science. The filmmaker’s own spoken journal entries represent anecdotal interpretations of memories and personal experiences that have informed his understanding of not only Mars, but of our larger significance in the cosmos.
Awards:
- 1999 Massachusetts Cultural Council, Massachusetts Media Fellowship recipient
Screenings:
- Mass Art Film Society, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 1998
- Amherst College, Visiting Artist, Department of English, Amherst, MA, 1998
- Dot Arts Film Festival, Dorchester Community Center for the Arts, Dorchester, MA, 1999
- Mass Ave. Film Festival, Embassy Theatre, Waltham, MA, 1999
- DUTV54, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 2000
- New Bedford Film Festival, Featured Artist Mini-Retrospective, New Bedford, MA, 2001
- After Hours Avant-Garde, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Boston, MA, 2003
- Clark University, Visiting Artist, Cinema Studies Department, Clark University, Worcester, MA, 2003
Resting Place
4 min., color, sound, 16mm, 1995
This film is about the acceptance of familial death. It documents the future place of rest in the cemetery not 100 yards from the front porch of my parents' house.
Screenings:
- AS 220, Robert Jazz Mystery Box Film Festival, Providence, RI, 1996
- Boston Film/Video Foundation, Motion Sickness Show, Boston MA, 1996
- Films in the Garden, curated by Heidi Bliss, outdoor annual festival in Somerville, MA, 1997
- New Bedford Film festival, Mini-Retrospective, New Bedford, MA, 2001
Whale/Wail
6 min., B+W, sound, 16mm, 1995
This film is an optically printed and transformed work derived from an 18 second sequence of images shot from the T.V. depicting pilot whales beaching themselves, and humans pushing them back into sea. The score is a combination of electronically manipulated sounds: voice, frequency, guitar, and ambient sounds of the ocean. The film attempts to create an aural and visual experience akin to the whales’ experience of self-destruction.
Screenings:
- AS 220, Robert Jazz Mystery Box Film Festival, Providence, RI, 1996
- Sync3, Massachusetts College of Art Showcase of Multi-media Works, Boston, MA, 1996
- Boston Film/Video Foundation, Motion Sickness Show, Boston MA, 1996
- Films in the Garden, outdoor annual festival in Somerville, MA, 1997
- Filmmakers Take Over, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline MA, 2000
- New Bedford Film festival, Mini-Retrospective, New Bedford, MA, 2001
- Optical Goodness, Films made with the optical printer, Emerson College, Boston, MA, 2003
87 Prospect St.
35 min., color, sound, 16mm, 1993
"Through the use of 16mm, video, and Super 8 images the film presents episodes in the filmmaker's daily life set to the backdrop of current political developments. Personal space is explored in relation to the "windows" and "doors" through which information and images from the public sphere penetrate. The work deals with the filmmakers’ relationship to the public and private events of the 1992 Clinton, Bush, Perot election year. Themes and issues are developed concerning the subjecthood and identity of a young person grappling with his role in American society as it prepares for political transition and change."
- Program Notes, “Independent Mass Media,” curator Gene Gort.
Awards:
- Kodak Special Merit award, New England Film and Video Festival, 1994
Screenings:
- Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI, 1994
- New England Film and Video Festival, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 1994
- Black Maria Film Festival, Directors Citation, traveling, 1994
- Pioneer Valley Young Filmmakers Festival, Montague, MA, 1994
- Mass Art Film Society, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 1994
- BadAss Film Festival, BadAss Works Collective, Curated show of Young Filmmakers, Roxy Theatre,
San Francisco, CA, 1994
- St. Martin's School of Design, Visiting Artist, London, England, 1994
- Independent Massachusetts Media Program, screened at Zone Center for the Arts, Springfield, MA and Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, MA, Curated by Gene Gort, 1995
- Alumni Film and Video Conference, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, 1996
- Frames Per Second, Guest Artist, Emerson College, Bill Bordy Theater, Boston, MA, November 2007
When I was a Kid I wanted to be an Astronaut
24 min., color, sound, 16mm, 1991
A meditation on childhood, memory, space travel, home movies and landing on the real and imaginary moon.
Screenings:
- The Conspiracy Show, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY, 1991
- The 88 room, Primal Plunge Show of Young Talent, Allston, MA, 1992
- Pioneer Valley Young Filmmaker's Festival, Montague, MA, 1992
- Mass Art Film Society, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 1993
Super 8 Short Works and Visual Journals
1hr. 45 min., color, B+W, sound, silent, Super 8, 1989–2008
An evolving collection of Super 8 film journals that use "in camera" editing techniques. They often represent visual transpositions of experiences that take place over a period of time, from minutes to a few months, at a particular location. The reels in each screening are ordered chronologically, and appear in short and long programs.
The three short films below are part of the “Walking” series—one sub-set of these visual journals that document visual impressions recorded during various walks.
D. Jarman’s Dungeness
6 min., color, silent, Super 8, 2004
A portrait of Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage and the surrounding landscape, the backdrop for many of his films, shot on the 10th anniversary of his death from complications due to AIDS.
Australia Rolls
12 min., color, silent, Super 8, 2002
The three rolls that constitute “Walking Australia Sites” were shot while on an excursion to Australia with my partner who was shooting digital video of our trip. The first was shot at the Great Ocean Road, a popular natural tourist attraction in the state of Victoria; the second was taken at an eco-tourist island off the Queensland coast called Frasier Island; and the last reel was shot on Lady Elliot Island, a small coral atoll at the base of the Great Barrier Reef. Shown as a series they depict a searching desire for natural vistas as far removed from human presence as possible. In each successive location, the tourist experience of the landscape becomes as much of a focus as the landscape itself, and the filmmakers become implicated in their own fetishization of the vista.
Rounding the Boundary with Father
3 min, color, silent, Super 8, 1999
"Rounding the Boundary..." was shot using one fifty-foot cartridge documenting walks taken with my father. Structurally, the film depicts the cyclical journey of a walk taken around the boundary of my father's property in rural Connecticut. The work generates a set of sensory impressions associated with acts of marking and maintaining this boundary.
Super 8 Short Work Screenings:
- Mass Art Film Society, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 1996, 1998
- Splice This, Super 8 festival in Toronto, Ont., 1997
- Flicker Film Fest, Richmond, VA, and touring to other Flicker venues 1998-2000
- United States Super 8 Film Festival 2000 and 2001, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
- Roll Call, Abbey Lounge, Curated by Rich Pontius and John Quakenbush, Cambridge, MA,
2000
- Melbourne Super 8 Group, Erwin Rado Theater, Melbourne, Australia, April 2000
- Cyber Arts Festival, Gallery @ Green St., Jamaica Plain, MA, 2003
- Summer Shangri-La, Group Screening, Berwick Institute, Roxbury, MA, August 2006
- Super 8 Boston Filmmakers, Group Screening, Adam Paradis, programmer, Jamaica Plain, MA, January, 2009