Language: English

  • Arrival 1, Arrival 2

    This experimental essay film springs from the final days of December 2020 when I moved from Chicago to Toronto. The film documents my move and then continues on alternate paths, weaving through the liminal spaces of borders, sickness, interpellation, and dreams. Content Note: This film contains extended discussions about fatphobia and disordered eating. Specifically, this film contains descriptions of food restriction, idealization of thinness, and intense emotional and physical pain after eating. After 11:41 there is no direct discussion of disordered eating. Flashing lights throughout. Loud noises throughout.

  • Tell Me about SunTea

    Tell Me about SunTea (Super 8, Digital Video, Colour, Stereo Sound, 6 minutes and 47 seconds) Tell Me about SunTea builds a conversational and spatial ecosystem, weaving together the disparate spaces of the Toronto Islands and Covington, Texas. The film considers the life cycles of plants and animals, as discussed by the filmmaker’s Gram and as remembered by the filmmaker. Conversational obstacles and a failed interview attempt are re-imagined as off-road opportunities. The repeated voice over reveals changes in cadence and content that point to the fragile intimacy held in language and storytelling. “Considering different forms of mechanical and organic…

  • Pressure & Release

    Pressure & Release is a multi-layered story drawn from memories of my paradoxical sleep, a sub-conscious response to the recognition that we are amid the “Anthropocene period” and the “Holocene extinction.” Certain ideologies combined with well ingrained cultural practices are driving this rapid transformation into something we may or may not yet imagine as this era’s lasting presence unfolds.

  • No Rest for the Restless

    Some stories appear complete, while others do not. Some stories are remembered, while others are forgotten. Some stories obscure, while others reveal. Even though somewhat different in shape and form “No Rest for the Restless” is in some ways a subconscious re-imagining of an exhibition I had many years ago of the same name. At that time, I found the human project to be astounding and baffling. I continue to be astounded and baffled today.

  • The Sun comes out at Night

    During a severe thunderstorm in Saskatchewan, Canada Buckminster Fuller* appears, disappears, then re-appears in a gas station parking lot discussing World War I, the shift from animal/human power to the machine, as well as the law of thermodynamics and evolution. If I were a futurist, I would predict that the world Buckminster Fuller describes in the 20th Century, or the world we are familiar with today in the early 21st Century will be a very different world in the 22nd Century. Acquiring energy is the core concern of all living entities such as photosynthesis, or vegetable/animal matter. Along with water…

  • Sightings

    During my childhood I spent countless hours daydreaming. Often about boarding an alien spacecraft where they would ask me about life on Earth. I would enthusiastically tell them my thoughts and observations about this or that, which the space aliens always seemed to find interesting. In retrospect I was engaging in a transference of my frustration that no one on this planet seemed particularly interested in my opinions. At that time, I was a voracious reader of science fiction novels, in particular Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov. After watching Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” I was certain…

  • Savage / Future

    Editing to the soundscape of shaking Iroquois white corn and finger tapping, Seneca filmmaker Terry Jones uses personal and historic still images to link his family and the American Indian Residential Boarding School experience.

  • Music is my Boyfriend

    The Hidden Cameras burst onto the Toronto music scene in the early 2000s with an irresistible combination of pop and queer sensibilities. Via songs ranging from haunted, aching ballads to foot-stomping anthems, the band’s outrageous stage shows packed sweaty dance bars, art museums and even churches. Fronted by singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the ensemble continues its musical provocations to this day, with Berlin as its centre of gravity. MUSIC IS MY BOYFRIEND chronicles the early days of The Hidden Cameras. Combining interviews with original members, behind-the-scenes footage during a recording session and rarely-seen 16mm film of two of their legendary live…

  • GANGBANG

    GANGBANG takes place in a bedroom that resembles a gay porn set. Six male models occupy the space, surrounding an empty bed, staring at you. They’re shirtless, wearing blue jeans. We move closer to the group and watch each face dissolve over each other in a series of close-ups. The models never break their seductive smiles, which is all the intimacy they offer. Based on the setup, we anticipate that someone will eventually make the first move. But unlike the stimulating title, GANGBANG denies the viewer of sexual gratification; instead, time freezes – the boys pose together but never make…

  • The Expanding Horizon

    A 16-year-old wants to buy weed from his drug dealer classmate, but he has an unusual request.