Directing

Stanya Kahn

Stanya Kahn is an interdisciplinary media artist. Working primarily in video, with a practice that includes performance, writing, and photography, Kahn's work inhabits a space between fiction and document, and stems from an extensive background in live performance. Integrating the visceral and the improvised with the tightly scored and written, her work addresses issues of agency, power, and the u…

Known For

Room Temperature

Room Temperature · 2025

Room Temperature

MovieDramaHorror

Every year, a family home is turned into a haunted house. The purpose is not only to be as terrifying as possible, but also to create a spectacular attraction to draw the neighbors in. The situation grows increasingly complicated, broken and distressed as the family’s problems intercede in their plans and as their real lives become the film’s true and overriding scary haunt.

Whacker

Whacker · 2005

Under a cloudless Los Angeles sky, Kahn—dressed in incongruous heels and a summery dress—runs an electric weed whacker through a hill of overgrown grass.

By Hook or by Crook

By Hook or by Crook · 2001

By Hook or by Crook

MovieCrimeDrama

Shy is a transgender man who leaves his small town after the death of his father, and heads to the big city to live a life of crime. Along the way, he encounters Valentine, a quirky adoptee, in search of his birth mother. An immediate kinship is sparked between these men and they become partners in crime.

Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out

Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out · 2006

Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out

A woman with a viking helmet, bloody nose, and large wheel of cheese rambles across Los Angeles, followed by a cameraman hoping to catch some action.

No Go Backs

No Go Backs · 2020

Two teenagers traverse a post-apocalyptic California in this tale of an inherited wasteland, unprepared resilience and compassion, which points to the beginnings of a new future.

Friends in Low Places

Friends in Low Places · 2018

Friends in Low Places

Water drops from the sky, but the mood changes quickly in this brightly coloured animation, created from paintings. A cycle of death and regeneration ensues, to convey the artist’s solidarity with this planet and its people. An escape to freedom prompts some optimism during these strange times.

Masters of None

Masters of None · 2006

Masters of None

At first glance, Masters of None could be the home video of a family of neon-pink hooded figures, passing the time with charades, television, and Jiffy Pop on the stove. As in All Together Now, Masters has no dialogue or clear narrative arc, and while the domestic activities seem everyday, they are infused with suggestions of violence and danger.

So Low You Can’t Get Over It

So Low You Can’t Get Over It · 2022

So Low You Can’t Get Over It

Landscapes that burn and flood, shift and collapse in an unstable world. Human figures stare at cellphones while floating down the river and falling from the sky. An abstract exploration of the known that becomes unknown, in which animated paintings manifest the uncertainty that surrounds us.

Filmography

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Room Temperature

Room Temperature · 2025

Room Temperature

MovieDramaHorror

Every year, a family home is turned into a haunted house. The purpose is not only to be as terrifying as possible, but also to create a spectacular attraction to draw the neighbors in. The situation grows increasingly complicated, broken and distressed as the family’s problems intercede in their plans and as their real lives become the film’s true and overriding scary haunt.

Beatrice

Whacker

Whacker · 2005

Under a cloudless Los Angeles sky, Kahn—dressed in incongruous heels and a summery dress—runs an electric weed whacker through a hill of overgrown grass.

Director

By Hook or by Crook

By Hook or by Crook · 2001

By Hook or by Crook

MovieCrimeDrama

Shy is a transgender man who leaves his small town after the death of his father, and heads to the big city to live a life of crime. Along the way, he encounters Valentine, a quirky adoptee, in search of his birth mother. An immediate kinship is sparked between these men and they become partners in crime.

Billie

Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out

Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out · 2006

Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out

A woman with a viking helmet, bloody nose, and large wheel of cheese rambles across Los Angeles, followed by a cameraman hoping to catch some action.

Director

No Go Backs

No Go Backs · 2020

Two teenagers traverse a post-apocalyptic California in this tale of an inherited wasteland, unprepared resilience and compassion, which points to the beginnings of a new future.

Director

Friends in Low Places

Friends in Low Places · 2018

Friends in Low Places

Water drops from the sky, but the mood changes quickly in this brightly coloured animation, created from paintings. A cycle of death and regeneration ensues, to convey the artist’s solidarity with this planet and its people. An escape to freedom prompts some optimism during these strange times.

Director

Masters of None

Masters of None · 2006

Masters of None

At first glance, Masters of None could be the home video of a family of neon-pink hooded figures, passing the time with charades, television, and Jiffy Pop on the stove. As in All Together Now, Masters has no dialogue or clear narrative arc, and while the domestic activities seem everyday, they are infused with suggestions of violence and danger.

Director

So Low You Can’t Get Over It

So Low You Can’t Get Over It · 2022

So Low You Can’t Get Over It

Landscapes that burn and flood, shift and collapse in an unstable world. Human figures stare at cellphones while floating down the river and falling from the sky. An abstract exploration of the known that becomes unknown, in which animated paintings manifest the uncertainty that surrounds us.

Director