Work sample:
1. Last Day of Freedom:
Link: https://vimeo.com/125994845
PW: LDOF2015
An animated documentary. Produced and directed with Dee Hibbert-Jones. 2015, 32 Min
When Bill Babbitt realizes his brother Manny has committed a crime he agonizes over his decision- should he call the police? Last Day of Freedom, a richly animated personal narrative, tells the story of Bill’s decision to stand by his brother in the face of war, crime and capital punishment. The film is a portrait of a man at the nexus of the most pressing social issues of our day – veterans’ care, mental health access and criminal justice
For more see website: http://www.lastdayoffreedom.net
2. Hazel & David (& found footage sample)
Description: These two short excerpts from experimental works describe in concept and technique my explorations with repurposed found footage, truth, reality and fiction.
- Hazel & David, 2005/10, 4:50
Sample length: 4:00
Commissioned by the Academic Film Archive of North America (AFANA), Hazel and David is a re-working of a film from their archives. The original, David and Hazel: A Story in Communication (National Film Board of Canada 1964), is an educational film about the importance of communication between married couples. I scanned the 16MM film and used part of the original soundtrack, to re-create the film as a ‘drama’, with the female character as the lead. Please note: This is the nearly full-length version (missing the credits and AFANA’s information, beginning and end).
- Everything I knew about America I learned from the Movies, 16:30 (2003. Excerpts: McGuffin, A Western, XXX)
Sample length: 4:00 mins
Everything I Knew About America I Learned from the Movies(2003) reconstructs fictional film genres using found home movies, which I scanned and edited to reveal how life on celluloid reflects, imitates and defines everyday life. The complete film was made up of eleven short vignettes (see writing in N-Media publication for more), only three are included in this sample.
3. Are We There Yet? Interactive Video installation
Documentation of work with video excerpts. 4:25 Min
Description: Created for DISLOCATE 08’s Festival of Locality and Technology, Japan. The interactive video installation, and public project Are We There Yet? maps the internal thoughts and memories of passengers above and below ground on the Yokohama subway. Stories, sounds and video excerpts were embedded on an interactive map (a hacked computer with 32 buttons, each containing one film clip created from interviews and footage shot on the Yokohama Blue Line). Visitors in the exhibition pushed buttons on the interactive map to see and hear stories from each station. Alternately, visitors downloaded an audio version available in the gallery or online and traveled the subway to hear these stories at the exact location they took place. Coproduced and directed with Dee Hibbert-Jones
Exhibitions: Dislocate 08 International Festival of Art, Technology and Locality ZAIM Gallery, Yokohama, and Souzoukukan9001 Gallery Yokohama Japan
4. Run With It – 5 min. sample, WIP
5 Min. work sample – first scenes and first trial. Intro to characters and story, partial animation and temp archival footage.
About the film:
Run with It, an animated documentary, explores the crisis in the criminal justice system and the US racial divide through the eyes of De’Jaun Correia, a young black man on the Dean’s List at Morehouse College, guided by the memory of his uncle Troy Davis who mentored him from death row. At 19, Davis was accused of killing a white police officer in one of the most controversial, racially charged cases to go before the courts. De’Jaun grew up spinning quarters on death row; attending Amnesty protests with his mother, Martina, who spearheaded the campaign to prove her brother’s innocence. Davis was executed in 2011, Martina died shortly after. De’Jaun, the last man standing, describes the multi-generational impacts of trauma and racial bias. This is a story of role models, truth and false perceptions, told by a young man determined to succeed, in a world that seems weighted against him.
Produced and directed with Dee Hibbert-Jones
5. I-140/ Green Card: Video and photographic installation
I-140/ Green Card tells the story of inequality, civil rights and immigration policies towards same sex couples prior to the legalization of gay marriage in 2015. Using my own situation as subject I held handmade signs with Hibbert-Jones on freeways up and down California as cars drove by, describing my $40,000, seven-year struggle to stay legally in the US. Exhibited in museums and galleries as installations: video, photographic prints and hand painted signs, the work circulated on same-sex advocacy sites and news blogs internationally.
Produced and directed with Dee Hibbert-Jones