THEM : ME
Role: Director, Concept, Writer, Editor
Project: Currently in blueprint phase, THEM:ME will document the lives of self-identified males across various backgrounds--racial, ethnic, geographical, political, religious--in the United States in a 15-30 minute multi-channel video portrait of masculinity, capturing its conceptual texture through deep attention to the film’s subjects. I will strive to honor each person in their complexities. Through interlocking narratives, I aspire to critique, expand, and question the definition of masculinity in the United States today and provide an updated, visually poetic iconography to those who might not otherwise have access.
*I do not own or have rights to the above footage/audio. The collected media is being used as a living moodboard and project sample only.
Overview
As a creative, I fall mostly outside of the art world. I didn’t go to art school and have earned an income by creating work for commercial purposes. This project represents an idea I’ve been ruminating on for years but never had the resources to bring to life. The next step involves finding appropriate funding. Financial support would provide the ingredients required to realize this vision, which seems even more necessary in this moment of profound reckoning about what the United States is and can be.
Origins
The psychological and emotional worlds of self-identified boys/men can contain conflicting and destructive impulses, yet are often mischaracterized or even ignored. In the age of George Floyd and #metoo, when masculinity as a whole is dismissed as ‘toxic’, where does that leave boys/men around the country? Is it possible to conceive masculinity, through observation, in a way that adds nuance or even transforms these broken frames?
Themes
Masculinity • Role Models • Purpose/Meaning • Personal Ethos • Weakness • National Identity • Online Sexual Identity • Mental Health • Relationships • Family Dynamics
Execution
To capture the diversity of subjects, I will travel to culturally, socially, and economically diverse neighborhoods in the NY/NJ/CN/PA area, parts of the American South, and multiple cities across Texas. I intend to interact with various organizations: political, religious, academic, athletic, labor, and military. With a decade of experience as a director/producer/editor, the project team will draw from my trusted network of production talent, including the highly skilled Italian cinematographer Mattia Palombi.
Exhibition
I will then work with designer Kirk Millar, creative director of Linder, to interpret the multi-channel project physically for an exhibition space, riffing on motifs from the film in a manner that both implicates and questions the viewer’s role in the work. Example: this may take shape as a collage of small-to-medium sized screens (16:9 and 9:16) in combination with abstracted objects that can be physically engaged; upon closer inspection, viewers can recognize that the objects correlate with specific narratives from the video.
References
The intimacy and grittiness of Martin Bell’s Streetwise, the visual poetry of Clair Denis’ Beau Travail, the documentary observation of artist Kenneth Tam and his body of work on masculinity, the crop/tone in Meryam Joobeur’s Oscar-nominated short Brotherhood, the collage-style storytelling of Arthur Lipsett’s 21-87, the nuanced presentation of psychological struggle and family dynamics in Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, the youthful sincerity of Jonah Hill’s Mid 90’s, and the wounded adolescence of Truffaut’s The 400 Blows.
