Luke Smithers

A young man confronts himself at 80.

Fragile Machines is an independent art film which tells the story of a married couple and the affairs that make their relationship irreparable. The film follows a non-linear, gestural narrative—shifting between seasons, homes, oceans and embraces fluidly and rapidly. The movement direction follows a form of contemporary dance: contact improvisation.

In a new short film commissioned by INTO, director Luke Smithers represents man’s ever-complicated relationship with nature as a sensuous, tension-filled pas de deux. Both unsettling and beautiful, “Modern Man” features dancer Jamie McGregor in various states of dress (and undress, and distress) as he grapples with the elements and attempts to get back in touch, quite literally, with his roots.

Two high school wrestlers find that they have feelings for one another during a match. They wrestle each other as much as they wrestle the truth of their sexualities.

Escaping from her father's stifling piety, young Ruth ventures into the woods where she befriends curmudgeon Milton. Salvation comes not in the form of the God Ruth's father worships but in the form of this embittered old man.