[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 20 8:30 am –Library Center Theatre, Park City]

In 2005, on the set of We Go Way Back  (my first feature film as writer/director), I remember having the distinct feeling that I’d finally found what I was always meant to do. It was an electrifying and completely transformative revelation.

As far back as I can remember I always knew I wanted to be an artist. Finding myself smitten with nearly every creative medium in existence probably made the fact that I ended up deeply exploring a variety of them before settling on narrative filmmaking unavoidable. I certainly don’t regret the years of my life spent as a poet, painter, actor, and photographer. I know in my soul that the time and energy invested in each of those endeavors add up to the filmmaker I am today.

Indeed, one of the things I love most about filmmaking is the multitude of languages that make up the cinematic lexicon. It is not just one art; it is a symphony of many, all swirling together to create one of the most powerful mediums in the realm of human creativity.

Cinema, as Andrei Tarkovsky pointed out, is the art form that most closely approximates the human experience. It has the capability of mesmerizing the viewer and pulling them hook, line and sinker, into an entirely different world by enticing two senses (sight and sound) so voluptuously, so rapturously, as to ignite the remaining senses to join in, thereby creating a complete feast for the viewer’s consciousness (for proof of a film being able to inspire taste, smell, and touch, think of Like Water for Chocolate.)

At any rate, now that I’ve found it, I’m never letting go. It is continually exhilarating to work in a medium that allows me to combine the talents of so many incredible and varied collaborators, all of whom are working together to create a piece far greater than the sum of its parts.