This Time Last Winter

At the edge of the world a Child learns from her Grandmother that she is descended from the fairies. She longs to know more but her Grandmother is silent. To find the story of her past, the Child enter the land of The In-between and travels to the beginning of time when Fairies roamed the earth. But the story she finds is not the one she wants. In a fit of anger she sends her Grandmother down into the sea to find the magic story she wishes for. Filled with remorse, she plunges into the sea to bring her back. As the Child sinks, the sleeping world of fairies begins to stir and the long lost secrets are awakened. The Water’s Tale is a story of the interconnection between a woman and the past – herself as a child and the burden of history through the ages.

This video addresses the complex and rich cultural history inherited by the children of immigrants. While official History is often presented as a single truth, "truth" is multi-layered and multi-valent. Through a layering of stories from Italian immigrants, images from Super 8 family films, and remembrances of my grandmother, "America il Paradiso" seeks to express the complexity of history.

High school is over, summer is ending, and Jake must say goodbye to his best friend Sarah but can’t. Instead, he confesses his true love and his desire to go with her. When Sarah rejects him, Jake seeks out escape by any means necessary: random sex, violence, going crazy, even buying into Charles’ deluded dream of driving to Toronto to become a stand up comic. But Jake’s real escape route leads not along the open road. It leads in the direction of a crazed dancing stranger.