Leaves for a reel

The idiot puts himself in the dirt and a way of life behind him. A new economic reality suggests he collect a pension on feigned retardation but sometimes truth veers absurdly close to fiction. He huffs glue and loses himself in the crawl of time.

Shapes blister and tumble across frame lines, colors splash, bleed, and vanish, machinic noise rumbles and churns. Produced using an entirely photochemical process on 35mm film, with an optical soundtrack generated photochemically, Day One is an odyssey of light and color, an exploration of the primary materials of analog filmmaking, and a miniature cosmos activated inside the cinematic apparatus.

More poseur than visionary, a filmmaker struggles to keep his creativity alive as he bumbles through the production of his sophomore film. Instead of rising to the challenge, he conflicts with his cast and crew, inevitably becoming a pathetically manipulative prick who no one can stand being around. A cast of Chicago talents star in this dark comedy about the consequences of pernicious narcissism developed from unchecked mediocrity in the world of independent film.

"I'm working on a new 35mm short called Day One, which, if it keeps my focus, will maybe become a series of seven films, all shot and finished on 35mm via a totally photochemical workflow. This is a much slower process than the earlier work, which was all edited digitally before being output to 35mm, and to keep up with this, I've been presenting the material I've been filming in a couple of different ways. First is as unedited camera rushes, in a series of films titled Today, none of which exist in their original form anymore"

What if all of your shameful web searches were preserved on archival-grade filmstock? A whirlwind of internet iconography set to Chicago hip-hop of the 2010s and presented in 35mm.

Shot on Super 8 and then transferred to 35mm, this fluid portrait of a free-spirited community that embraces homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness captures life on the edge of poverty in Kansas City, Missouri.