a few words on Microaggressions

My latest project is a 6 part web-series called Microaggressions. We’re having a screening here in Portland and then releasing the project online in mid-July. Also hoping to play a festival or two. I am thrilled and very proud of all the great work by my collaborators on this project: amazing actors, compelling score, strong images, ace editing. (Additionally, it’s been 4 years since The Black Sea came out so there is a component of quivering joy just to have a project completed).

The origin of the project was due to me being desperate to direct again but being realistic about the funding timeline for my next feature and knowing I should aim at something shorter until the feature money rolled in. I considered making a short film but because I wanted to tell it from multiple viewpoints it became more tenable to split it up and make each viewpoint an episode, even though I didn’t know what it was going to be yet. I had been thinking of locations I could get as this faint idea was gelling and somewhere along the way the concept of a dispute - filtered through the deliberate (read: slow as hell) process and language of city government - felt right. I wrote the script and applied for a project grant from the Regional Arts + Culture Council and was fortunate to receive one, though the amount I was awarded was half of what I requested and needed to make the project. We’ll just have to do more with less I sighed, which is a defining conceit of all sorts of governments (and film projects), even when it defies logic, reason or practicality.

Two of the actors I had worked with before (Todd Tschida, Michael Draper), one I had in mind when I wrote the piece, not that she knew I was writing it for her (Kate Gray) and two were new to me (Pisay Pao, Chike Nwankwo). I know all directors say this but this is a special group of performers, whose collective talents not only enliven what I had in mind but transcend it. I feel extremely fortunate to have these 5 on this show.

I probably will keep saying things about this project in the days to come (b/c there’s also lots to say about the bad-ass crew, the score by Scott Unrein, the images by Scott Ballard and team, the editing by Evonne Moritz, the song selections and how I made them etc) but for now I’ll say:

We’re playing at the 5th Avenue Cinema on 7/13 8 pm. Free popcorn. You should come.