Think Like a Filmmaker

THINK LIKE A FILMMAKER, a group of more than 150 cinematically-inspired objects, lives in a post-motion picture film world, where projection bulbs have gone dark, gears have stopped turning, shutters have stopped spinning, and metal parts have slowly begun to rust. All that's left are the basic tools and materials of an old technology -- remnants of a bygone era -- either neglected and discarded as obsolete clutter, or sold and collected as "mid-century" antiques.

I began making 16mm motion picture films back in 1974, accumulating and preserving a large collection of filmmaking tools and materials along the way. In early 2020, spurred by the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, I began to excavate and explore my collection, finding myself still deeply connected to this large assortment of old film, leader, reels, splicers, viewers, rewinds, and projectors — relics of an analogue technology that no longer had any functional role in my filmmaking practice. The more I studied them, the more I began to ponder how they might still serve an important role in my work — aesthetically, symbolically, and metaphorically — if I was willing to radically rethink my assumptions about “filmmaking” and my mission as an artist.

THINK LIKE A FILMMAKER breathes new life into my collection of old filmmaking tools, materials, devices and machines — re-imagining, reinventing, and transforming them into sculptural forms, translucent collages, Constructivist compositions, Color Field studies, conceptual gestures, found objects, time capsules, and sometimes simply as unexpectedly beautiful things. My focus is always on finding new meanings, new metaphors, and new ways of revealing how these artifacts of an old technology can tell new kinds of stories and excite the eye.