Paige Taul
Directing
Biography
Paige Taul is an Oakland, CA native who received her B.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in cinematography from the University of Virginia and her M.F.A in Moving Image from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She currently resides in Chicago, IL. "My work engages with and challenges assumptions of black cultural expression and notions of belonging through experimental cinematography. As a part of my filmmaking practice I test the boundaries of identity and self-identification through autoethnography to approach notions of racial authenticity. My interests lie in observing environmental and familial connections to concepts tied to racebased expectations and to expose those boundaries of identity in veins such as religion, style, language, and other black community based experiences."
Known For
A short film based on a polaroid sent to my mother from my father before he was sent to federal prison. This film is an attempt at connecting to the emotion and process of deciding how you want a loved one to perceive you and the performance of "cool".
7-7-94 For my babe
71 is about the sensibilities of the black middle class as observed by Jessica Taul and Pamela Patterson, the filmmaker's mother and aunt, respectively. They discuss their differing tastes, definitions of class, frogs, and other qualifiers they consider in their evaluation of the space that they live in: a suburban-like outcropping of identical housing units. Through direct quotation and phenomenological relation to Bill Greaves’ seminal film, Still A Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class (1968), 71 navigates the temporal gaps in conformity and respectability politics between 1968 and 2022.
71
About a girl and her Js. A meditation on the politics of style, collectivity, and self definition.
Goat
A tender approach to filmic abstraction mirroring the care evidenced in Roy DeCarava’s photograph Face out of focus (c. 1960). (Paige Taul)
After DeCarava
An answer to a proverbial question. An exploration of the concept of double consciousness and an attempt to render it visually.
Its a condition
An exploration of the expression one makes when the music is just that good. Meant to capture the intense emotion of the performers as they listen and dance to music while simultaneously addressing the universality of Black expression and whether or not such a feeling is a common experience.
It makes me wanna
Paige Taul, USA, 2017, HD video, 10 minutes, English
DiviNation
2020, 5 minutes
For the People in the Back
Paige Taul, 2017
I am
Paige Taul, USA, 2018, 16mm digital transfer, 4 minutes, English
What’s good Bruce?
Paige Taul, USA, 2020, Super8 digital transfer, 4 minutes, English
Maciré
Paige Taul, USA, 2020, archival footage digital transfer, 5 minutes, English
Too Small to be a Bear
A mediation on the quotidian joy of family, nature, sound, and Chicago. A collaboration between Paige Taul and Olula Negre, On Sunday is a film that seeks to expand a moment, a feeling, a memory. One that is simultaneously private and shared.
On Sunday
Paige Taul, USA, 2019, 16mm digital transfer, 8 minutes, English
Teef
An interview with David Reid, current owner and inheritor of Reid's Records in Berkeley, California, reflecting on the impact of gentrification on business and the neighborhood.
Reid's Records
"Blending found footage with oral interviews, Full Contact offers a personal dive into an unseen student's spiritual and bodily relationship with Judo. Also featured is the student's sensei, who discusses their philosophical understanding of Judo." – Denny Mwuara
Full Contact
Paige Taul, USA, 2017, 16mm digital transfer, 3 minutes, English
Transit
Paige Taul, USA, 2018, HD video, 4 minutes, English
In the face of god
Paige Taul, USA, 2019, Super8 digital transfer, 6 minutes, English
The Promise
"10:28,30 examines the relationship between myself and my sister, and our relationship to our mother. I am interested in the dissonance of our lives apart and the tension in the desire to be together."