The 3 segments of The Encarne Trilogy were originally created for an international contemporary surrealist exhibition and were shown at the summer home of Andre Breton on the 100th anniversary of his Manifesto of Surrealism. The shorts were created using  a familiar surrealist technique of gathering together unrelated footage and creating a completely different story out of them. All of the footage was improvised, whether it was a performance or just living life. All of the music in the short was also improvised. 

I am a multi-instrument free improvisational musician, surrealist photographer, and filmmaker from Birmingham, Alabama, US. I am part of the Fresh Dirt Surrealist Collective in Alabama. I was also a former board member of the American Dance Guild in NYC. The first movie I remember watching was 2001, A Space Odyssey and it very much captivated me and fueled my interest in space.

David Lynch’s Eraserhead completely changed my perspective of filmmaking. The way he utilized sound, dropped you into a reality that you had to figure out on your own, and the way he carried the story with minimal dialogue has been a strong influence in my film. Also, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams and his use of nature in visualizing his dreams into stories.

I have always had my fingers in the arts and each medium is a different way of expression. In each of the forms of expression, I leave it to the audience to interpret my work through their own filters, regardless of my intentions when creating a piece. I feel that once a piece of art is released, the viewer’s interpretation carries the same weight as the creator’s vision.
 

The lack of a budget required me to handle all aspects of filmmaking. This required a lot of technical learning to accomplish specific visions, especially in post. The original footage shot during a 2018 international surrealist festival had captivated my imagination and I sat on the footage for years because I knew there was a story in it, but I didn’t know what that story was. As the 2024 surrealist festival became imminent, I got together with Cilla Vee, ‘U’u, and Ladonna Smith and we did a few improvised skits in a book store and at her farm and from that footage, I was able to find the story.

This film was created in a non-traditional approach and it presented some unique problem solving. As the story began to unfold I had to figure out how to create my vision, which included special effects, without formal training or any specific shots purposely built for creating those effects.  Also creating a cohesive story using footage from all levels of cameras with only one of those cameras footage capable of allowing the kind of color correction and effects that I wished to create. I had to give up on the idea of a consistent color scheme across all of the footage, as most of the footage would fall apart when pushed. This led me to have to find some creative ways to keep all of the different types of footage from becoming a distraction.

The audience often spent time discussing what they saw and sharing their interpretation of the film. The interpretations varied wildly. I also explored sharing the story as I created it. Both approaches had their strengths and weaknesses but I felt that the audience spent more time and got more out of the film when they discussed it amongst themselves. However, when I did share my vision, many would also begin to see the depth of the story and we would have good deep discussions over the themes.

In the age of AI, standard Hollywood films and genre films are at risk of being co-opted. I feel the only way around this is to push the boundaries of filmmaking beyond the understanding of AI. To do this one must always create their own problems to overcome so that the film is its own special creation.

This is my first attempt at film festivals and they play a strong role in introducing a filmmaker and their work. Sometimes people need to see some success of a film before they take the time to fully watch it. It also creates a feedback loop to those following on social media as each award/selection/nomination brings in more interest for the film. Also, as a filmmaker, getting an opportunity to meet and discuss with other filmmakers helps to create new connections and ideas.

I am currently working on my next project which involves the use of a filmmaking game created by a friend. The process involves a director and others to play the game, react to the prompts and create a potential movie idea from the prompts. Once they have discussed and developed the basic ideas and characters, they then proceed to shoot a scene from the potential movie and send it to me. I will then take these wildly different scenes, in both content and directors approach and vision, and then craft them into an entirely different story. There are more details as to what I would need to pull this off, but it is a bit of a more sophisticated approach to Exquisite Corpse with scenes crafted through the randomness of cards and the parts of the story intentionally put together with an intentional storyline unrelated to the parts that make up the story.