Directing
AUGMENTED is an experimental non-fiction short, shot completely on 16mm, that analyzes the commonalities between medical augmentation and Transgender alignment. We are frightening because we're the future.
Third is an experimental narrative with a second life in its deeply layered soundtrack. Lit for night, and gelled for theatricality, Third looks at a trapped couple and their final release/demise.
A protopunk music video.
A triptych contrasting the noise of the street to the forced silence of institutionalization
A non fiction short film focusing on the intersection of gender transition and racial difference.
A short film that pays homage to a photo album from the 1940s/50s/60s given to the director by a Great Uncle who was also a pre-Stonewall Gay Man. Combining a wide range of historical and archival material with a passionate look at photography itself, the film examines generational changes in one family by looking at the changes in GLBT presence.
Wanted is a satirical look at the contrast between gay male and lesbian personal ads. Gender is reversed in the readers, leading towards a comic and confused mix of walks on the beach and sex in public. The film is shot in the straight-on style of a Warhol screen test.
13th Avenue Fargo Mine Cart was made driving down one big box store strip in the Midwest. Only conversation with a friend is redemptive.
Put the Brights On interviews four rural Transgender subjects from the Minnesota Lakes Region. The film works against common use portrayals of the rural and life in "the country" as quaint, cute, or dangerous and dumb, often with a sense of humor. Use of found footage, 16mm and Super 8 matched with the contemporary audio track give Put the Bright On a parallel low fi visual/hi fi audio contrast.
Straightboy Lessons is an experimental documentary that reenacts a conversation, and a friendship, between a transitioning transman and a non-transsexual man.
An experimental animation combining analog 16mm xerox animation and traditional rotoscope with digital visual effects, this raw film/video plots the beauty of a failed attempt.
For Nelie and Maria is a contact improvisation dance film with original choreography by Wes Staats and an original music score by George Todd. Three women start by playing paper/rocks/scissors and the game expands into an examination of the ability of siblings to use each other in movement and sound. -RR
