Black Hole Space Debt, or A Basic Guide to Syncing Sound and Image, 16mm with optical sound, 2022.
An instructional document about making a handmade optical soundtrack becomes a speculative sci-fi narrative about going to Mars. As the film progresses, the nature of the soundtrack comes to speak for the way space exploration is one part of a larger, systemic repetition of colonialism and debt peonage.
Lillian Finds the Zombies, 14:30, video, 2021.
The declining town of Negaunee, Michigan celebrates its history of iron ore mining, while my siblings explore the town’s ruins through self-directed zombie fantasies. The interwoven result is a portrait of my sister Lillian on the edge of adulthood, a localized interrogation of natural resource exploitation, and a situated vision of a tender apocalypse.
Psychic Meat, 9:55, 16mm to video. 2020.
This is a handmade diary film about surgery, my dad’s heart, and how our relationship is embedded in a network of industrial agriculture. Salt crystals dried on film, coupon dye transfers, and digital video try to approximate the psychically connected nature of violence.
Suburban Versions, 7:34, video. 2020.
A cheesy sexual encounter unfolds within the space of a suburban house. The house gets aroused, becoming an archive of musical sync points borrowed from kitschy gay pornography – this is a prefabricated fantasy.
Uriah Plays the Alien, 9:04, video. 2018.
A portrait of my brother Uriah becomes a sci-fi fantasy about queerness, alienation, and disability. Using reenactment to address the problematic, it proposes a way of healing and moving forward out of a present moment of rejection, into radical acceptance.
The Katelin Show, 5:12, 16mm to video. 2018.
My sister Katelin joyfully creates an internet variety show about herself by singing along to karaoke videos on YouTube. Meanwhile, the camera captures glimpses of our family’s Christmas party. What results is a singalong portrait of my sister’s unrelentingly joyful philosophy on life in the face of her childhood struggles.