Home Study - a film by Daniel Lee

When I’m lucky enough to be given it, I treasure the opportunity to artistically express a filmmaker’s vision. Translating their story with illustrations and color can be such a joy, especially when my work is given the honor and trust it needs to fully realize itself, both as an original piece of art and a compliment to the film. Reuniting with my friend and former Killing My Lobster cast member Daniel Lee was a delight, whose short film Home Study will be touring film festivals later this year. Co-starring Courtney Davis and Scott Prendergast, this charming short paints a portrait of a nervous gay couple navigating the adoption process of their first child.

"Shave" reviewed by Mike Everleth, Underground Film Journal

Originally published in Underground Film Journal, September 2nd, 2010:

Embedded above is a chillingly deceptive short film by Sean [David] Christensen called Shave. Disguised as a warm, childhood nostalgia piece, the film nicely uses the metaphor of a father shaving as a meditation on a son’s ultimate disappointment upon learning that his father is just a human being after all.

Personally, I do have a soft spot for films in which audio and visuals are presenting two separate components that are linked together thematically. Christensen uses this technique to great effect particularly towards the end when he lets the audio of his childhood video continue to roll while visually we are looking at the same pool, in a decaying, moss-covered state, in the present day. Using this combination creates a new emotional state, one in which the memory of happier times have turned to rot.

Also really nice in the film is the way Christensen cuts between shots of the swimming pool in the old video with new images of his father dipping his razor in the sink during his big shave. The cuts really flow together to create a real feeling of continuity between the two locations. Also, later in the film, a shot of the empty sink with just some residue and whiskers spread about creates the idea of the pool being similarly drained: Drained of water, drained of memory, drained of happiness.

One has to wonder about the true autobiography of the film. Christensen narrates the film himself, but did any of this actually happen to him? Are these even truly images of himself and his father? The documentary footage — i.e. what Christensen claims is his mother’s old video and even the still photos — are used to lead us to believe that the narrated story is documentary, too, and not a fiction.

However, all that we have seen is called into being suspect when Christensen admits that he is altering his own memories. He refuses to remember his father without a mustache and never allows us to see him without it, either. The one actual video of the man we take to be Christensen’s father jumping off the diving board is too blurry to discern what state his facial hair is in.

Christensen paints a particular visual portrait of his father by only showing us photos of him with facial hair. And he paints a portrait of himself through the narration of a person who refuses to accept his father for the person his dad wants to be, which hints at there’s maybe something more going on here than just a mustache.

By Mike Everleth | Underground Film Journal, September 2nd, 2010.

"MY MOTHER'S EYES" by Jenny Wright

“A story about motherhood and loss in an abstracted world of childhood memory.” Understated, devastating visual storytelling from animator Jenny Wright - an elegant example of the power and impact of a single line on the page.

CREDITS

Animated by Jenny Wright

Composer: Matt Huxley

Sound Designer: Ben Goodall

Vidiots - Reinventing video store culture for the 21st Century

Growing up, every Friday was “Blockbuster Day.” It was a treat at the end of the school week’s rainbow, my mom would pick me up from my after-school program and we’d round Glendale Ave. towards 16th street, the last of the evening’s sun glinting across the dashboard. Our destination was the Blockbuster Video across from the Shogun Express and Rainbow Cleaners (the lone survivor in the complex, today), to take home a tape to illuminate the blue glow of my parent’s television set, melting my childhood worries. Admittedly, I don’t create that same type of time, now that I’m older. The ritual has changed. Perhaps it’s also due to the changing landscape of the places I find movies, which aren’t places at all. Streaming services have made the “trip to the video store” as convenient as clicking a button, across a list of choices with no horizon.

I don’t celebrate “Blockbuster Day” anymore, but I do miss the aisles of tapes that were as tall as redwoods when I was young, and the joy of getting lost and not minding that I was lost. I would turn over boxes in my hands, wondering if the glossy pictures on its covers were enough to reward my faith in handing them to my mom and asking, “Can we rent these?”

When my dear friend Maggie Mackay, Executive Director of Vidiots Foundation, shared the news that a Vidiots re-launch would be taking place in 2020, I was honored to design this piece of commemorative art. After shuttering their original space in 2017, Vidiots will be returning to Los Angeles with almost 10,000 square feet of educational and entertainment space, awakening my childhood memories of losing one’s self in the aisles. Maggie says it best: “A one-of-kind hub for film lovers, filmmakers, and everyone curious about cinema, Vidiots is dedicated to inspiring human interaction around film through preserving, growing, and providing access to its diverse DVD, BluRay, and rare VHS collection, showcasing the work of emerging and master artists, and producing unique film events and vital education programs.”

2020 can’t arrive soon enough.

MVA 2019 Thesis Films: Center for Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California

This afternoon’s screening at USC School of Cinematic Arts caps another remarkable year of work by the latest MVA cohort at the USC Center for Visual Anthropology. During this one-year intensive MA program, students are trained in ethnographic methods to observe and document people’s embodiment of cultural practice & personal histories, resulting in a half-hour documentary film.

Topics of this year's thesis films include: First-generation college students of color studying animation; parent-child communication between Chinese international students (CIS) born under China's One Child Policy and their parents; polyamorous parenting in the United States; the ritual of Tefillin among Orthodox Jewish men in Los Angeles; traditional Filipino hand-tap tattooing; the culture of social service in a facility for homeless families in Santa Barbara; and the challenges of small farmers in the U.S., 80% of whom are seniors, facing retirement with uncertainly about who will take over their farms when it comes.

Now serving as part of the faculty at the USC Department of Anthropology, after having gone through the program myself in 2018, I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for the web of support required to lift even (one) film off the ground! My MVA film, Ghost Tape #10, was no different - owing its spirt to the international network of teachers, specialists and cultural advisors I met through USC. My heart is grateful to all the students who collectively inspired their best work amongst them this year, and the instructors who guided them. Learn more about this year’s MVA films here!

2019 MVA Thesis Projects:

Changing Hands: Land in Transition by Amanda Broder-Hahn

To Be Anything, Animating Possible Selves by Marissa Dimitrion

Polyamory in the Family: It Takes a Village by Maleia Mikesell

The Modern Day Mambabatok: Lane Wilcken and Filipino Tattooing in the Diaspora by Kayla Sotomil

Webs of Compassion by Rebecca Truszkowski

Obligation & Self: Chinese International Students and the One-Child Policy by Qihao Wang

Bind It As A Sign: Learning the Jewish Tefillin Ritual by Joshua Zepeda

Ghost Tape #10 / San Diego International Film Festival

Thrilled to announce that Ghost Tape #10 will make its West Coast premiere at the San Diego International Film Festival next month. I’m honored to share their screens with the 107 selected films in Gala, Spotlight, Narrative, Documentary, and Short Selections. My spirit is grateful to my crew in Vietnam and Los Angeles, and my instructors at the USC Center for Visual Anthropology.

Ghost Tape #10 awarded at SVA Film & Media Festival

The Society for Visual Anthropology’s Film & Media Festival screens work by students, professional anthropologists, and professional filmmakers at the American Anthropological Association’s annual conference. This year’s festival is hosted in the beautiful city of Vancouver, and I can’t wait to present my film alongside other works of visual ethnography at such a critical event. This year’s theme, “Changing Climates,” invites anthropologists and their collaborators to examine how we engage with communities around issues of change over time, including climate change, to envision and build a more equitable future.

"The Future Cries Beneath Our Soils" by Pham Thu Hang

Sometimes in a university classroom, other times in a theatre, screening Ghost Tape #10 has given me the opportunity to quietly reflect in the back row, in darkness. After sharing my film this afternoon with the students of UC Riverside, my memories of making it and of my gratitude to one particular individual, came to the surface.

Filmmaker Pham Thu Hang, director of The Future Cries Beneath Our Soils, was gracious enough to guide me through my noble stumbles in Vietnam, summer of 2017. Her patience and grace in how she sees the world is reflected within her work, her camera capturing light like a painter's brush - in this, a her film about five men enjoying an odd friendship in Vietnam's Quảng Tri province, a site still bearing the scars of war.

Cảm ơn, Hang 🍟your spirit always finds its way to say hello to me during each screening of mine. Here’s to the next time we see each other!

DER50: Tim Asch Symposium at USC

Timothy Asch's (1932-1994) impact on documentary filmmaking was profound, as was his role in continuing the legacy of the USC Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California, the same institution that incubated and supported the development of my most recent documentary, Ghost Tape #10.

On November 9th, 2018, DER (Documentary Educational Resources) 50th Anniversary Symposium provided a unique opportunity for all those in attendance to reflect on Asch's pioneering work of incorporating audio-visual media into anthropological research and teaching. Accompanied by a special screening of excerpts from the beautifully restored Yanomamö film series, Asch's vision and generosity of spirit were celebrated by those who knew him and admired his work.

It was an honor to guest blog for DER in covering this event - my own small way of showing tribute to the USC CVA, an institution that has meant so much to my professional growth & development as a documentary filmmaker.

"Bloodlines" by Christopher Nataanii Cegielski

A finely-tuned short, Bloodlines is the rare type of film that showcases its assuredness and strength of vision through restraint. Executed with grace and delicacy, it rewards the viewer for listening and leaning into its quiet spaces, disclosing subtle moments of conflict and tension. From PBS Film School Shorts: “Two brothers suffer a crisis of conscience while trying to impress their gruff father in this quiet film about a Native American family.” A film by Christopher Nataanii Cegielski, co-starring Jon Proudstar.

"Buzz" by Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe

Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe (Gulp Splash) are masters of the comedic slight of hand, concealing acerbic commentaries on the maniacal obsessions of domesticity beneath their whimsical comic fantasies. Having just returned from SXSW 2019 with their feature adaptation of Greener Grass, a dizzyingly off-kilter suburban nightmare, Buzz is the perfect example of their craft’s deliberate pace and control, trading simple punchlines for the types of laughs you’re afraid to make in a crowded theatre. From the filmmakers: “A codependent woman’s life is disrupted when her servile best friend wants to move out of their isolated mountain home to be with a man. She hatches an unusual plan to ensure she will never be alone.”

FILMMAKERS

Created by: Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe (“Greener Grass” Sundance 2019)
Directed by: Mitch Magee (“Welcome To My Study” Funny or Die Presents, HBO)

Written by and Starring: Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe 
With Patrick Carroll as Buzz and James Pumphrey as Hank

Gulp Splash Productions & Alpen Pictures
Producer: Nate Vaughan
Supervising Producer: Matt Pittman
Executive Producers: Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe
Director of Photography: Daniel Kenji Levin
Production Design: Traci Hays
Editors: Taylor Gianotas, Chris Punsalan
Costume Design: Michelle Thompson
Hair and Makeup: Veronica Sinclair
Music Composer: Samuel Nobles
Sound Designer: Brian Goodheart

Ghost Tape #10: World Premiere at the University of Southern California

This Friday, at the world premiere screening of my USC MVA (Masters of Arts in Visual Anthropology) cohorts' thesis films, Ghost Tape #10 will be shared with its first audience. Its screening will mark the one year anniversary of my first midnight in Vietnam, its cloak of night shrouding the miles I had left before me, miles before I could fully grasp what story I was trying to tell. The humidity was so intense that summer, the combined heat and moisture had eroded the black fabric coating my headphone's earmuffs, leaving its flakes clinging to my neck like pieces of dead skin. Each time I fished them out of my backpack to record an interview, there was less of it left, and each time, I felt like a fool. 

It seemed, for a time while I was there, that everything was slowly falling apart. Deaf and dumb to the language that surrounded me, my exhaustion found new ways to undermine my assuredness, always keeping me off-balance. Thankfully, I was blessed with a remarkable group of guides, artists and craftspeople who helped me find my way, some of whom will be joining me in my school's darkened theatre on Friday. Under the mentorship of my professors who challenged me to take the right road instead of the easy one, I look back on a year and a filmmaking journey that still feels impossible. But then again, most dreams are.

ABOUT THE FILM:

Created by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, "Ghost Tape #10" was one of many tapes engineered as part of "Operation: Wandering Soul," a psychological operations campaign designed to intimidate and demoralize the North Vietnamese Army. These audio tapes would echo throughout war zones, their soundtracks consisting of actors portraying grieving family members, or voices from the dead, longing to be reunited with their loved ones. Exploiting the traditional Buddhist belief that, if denied a proper burial in their homeland, the dead wander the world aimlessly, these recordings were originally conceived of as attempts to weaponize an opposing culture's religious beliefs against them. Ghost Tape #10, the film, focuses on unearthing and re-examining this weaponization of belief through the context of modern day Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American religious practice. Through dreamlike visualizations and interviews in Vietnam and Los Angeles, reactions to this obscure piece of American propaganda lead to larger discussions about how modern day relationships between the living and the dead are carried out, and what truths, if any, still echo within this recording.

CREDITS

Camera
Sean David Christensen
Jamie Maxtone-Graham

Assistant Camera
Thiên Chip

Editor
Sean David Christensen

Translation & Transcription
Ca Dao "Cookie" Duong

Music & Sound Design
Ricky Berger

Supervising Sound Editor
Michael Cullen

Re-Recording Mixer
Anna Wozniewicz

Miniatures & Animation
Sean David Christensen

Figurines
Jedadiah (Joseph) Cracco

Field Guides & Interview Translators (Vietnam) 
Thành Hoa Nguyễn
Pham Thu Hang

With
Margaret B. Bodemer
Rick Hofmann
Tina Huynh
The Nguyễn Family
Tang
Thich Dao Tuong

USC MVA Production Faculty
Michael Bodie
Jennifer Cool
Lanita Jacobs
Robert Lemelson
Nancy Lutkehaus

Faculty Advisor
Janet Hoskins

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Produced at the Center for Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California
Copyright 2018, Sean David Christensen & the University of Southern California

"Ghost Tape #10" figurine by Jedadiah Cracco

After clearing its final sound mix at Chapman University last week, I'm excited to begin sharing more images and sounds from my upcoming film, Ghost Tape #10, with you all. A visualization of the effects of audio propaganda during the Vietnam War, this figurine of a North Vietnamese solider (designed & sculpted by Jedadiah Cracco), represents one of the central conceits of the film: unearthing the past. Through dreamlike visuals, I hope the film can explore this connection between the living & the dead that I experienced in Northern Vietnam, and what stories still lie underground, waiting to be pulled up into the light.

Back in the studio

What a joy to create this bright new color combination for my latest miniature, a recording studio from the mid-1960s. Partly historical, partly fantastical, this set was designed for my latest film, a documentary which utilizes archival recordings from the same era. I've always gravitated towards bending the rules of visually representing the past, and hope all of these pieces I've gathered come together as neatly as craft wood; Albeit, with some of their most endearing human imperfections imprinted upon the final product. 

Hand lettering cinematic titles & an appreciation for Pablo Ferro

One of my all-time favorite movie openings that elegantly incorporates hand lettered cinematic titles belongs to Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia. Masterfully pairing the film's theme (performed by Bruce Springsteen) with warm, cursive script, this sequence beautifully captures the shifting harmonies and subtle cruelties of an American city, one which claims brotherhood as its namesake (or brand), rather than an embodied ideal to strive for. 

Even as a young child, I appreciated the feeling that came over me as I recognized titles on screen that weren't rigid and streamlined. Like in Philadelphia, these were deliberate, yet imperfect artistic choices. Handmade, preserving all their flaws. Their inclusion almost seemed like a clever trick, as if each card was an intruder, too sloppy for the big screen. Yet every time I'd come across this artist's work, whether I knew it or not, he evoked notes that I still can't describe. Going back through his resume, it's illuminating to realize his craft framed some of my favorite films as a child, my most formative to how I approach titles today: Dr. Strangelove, Harold and Maude, Men in Black & The Addams Family.

One of Pablo Ferro's most iconic works, his diabolically romantic opening titles for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

I'm speaking of the great Pablo Ferro, whose unmistakable style is still as bold and fresh as it was right off the page in the mid-60s. As I've learned, in creating my own handmade titles for my upcoming film, this approach takes time and a great deal of patience, much like re-fueling a B-52 in midair. Starting with a ruler, paper and some technical pens, I've reconnected with that childlike fascination of the bond between the hand and the page, an artistic choice that is imprinted with as much care as setting up a shot or smoothing out a piece of audio. Every bit counts. 

Empty Skies // official poster

What a stimulating challenge to design a film poster for another filmmaker's vision! Many thanks to directors Wenting Deng Fisher & Luke Fisher for their guidance and faith in my abilities. The sumptuously shot and heartbreaking short, Empty Skies, coming soon!

SACRED SHIT by Machete Bang Bang & Erin Granat

One of microcinema's treasures is the joy of discovering nuance just beneath its surface on repeat viewings. Much like the delight you experience upon discovering a new instrumental flourish buried within your favorite song after revisiting it, the comparable brevity of a short film sharpens its audience's senses, refocusing them to engage with, and pick up, new details. A short film's runtime tacitly demands a heightened level of awareness from its viewers, knowing there's only so much time to tell its story. You can always hit “repeat,” though.

Erin Granat glides across the 395 highway in Sacred Shit.

On such repeat viewings, the impishly clever hide of Sacred Shit wears away, its clever skin belying its truer nature: a meditation on friendship, dependency & loss. Filmmakers Machete Bang Bang & Erin Granat (dear friends of mine for transparency’s sake), weave their individual talents together to express their own unique artistic stake in the process, while never sacrificing the volume of either voice to placate the other. Without spoiling the film’s revelatory ending, it’s clear that this sense of mutual collaboration speaks to more than simply the mechanics of making art, but a deeper need for each friend to support the other in the face of mortality and its humorless smile. Life, after all, has a runtime too, though we never know how long we’ve got until it’s too late to demand a repeat button. Now that’s some “sacred shit.”

- - -

Credits:

Starring: Erin Granat, Machete Bang Bang & John Weselcouch as "Friend on Phone"

Created by Machete Bang Bang and Erin Granat

Edited by Machete Bang Bang

Sound Design & Mix by Tim McKeown 

- - -

http://machetegoesbangbang.com/

https://eringranat.com/

Best of NFMLA Award nomination: "The Duel," Best Short Film - Documentary

I'm thrilled to be counted among the year's best at NewFilmmakers Los Angeles's "Best of NFMLA Awards." The Duel has been nominated for Best Short Film - Documentary, an honor I couldn't be more proud to share with my friends at the RISK! podcast and my unbelievable cast & crew. Now...what to wear on the red carpet? 

I Was There Too by Joey Izzo

A haunting, sharply comedic tale of one man's craven manipulation of public tragedy, I Was There Too is a claustrophobic morality play, or in Darius's case (played by DeMorge Brown), a trap of his own making. Estranged from his daughter Max (Sunni Salazar), Darius is a father on the sidelines. Frustrated. We're introduced to his character arguing with referees at Max's soccer game, his outburst mollified by his ex-wife's new partner, Eric (played Eric Dadourian), with a weary sense of responsibility. "You can't come anymore, you know that, right?" Faced with the potential of being pushed further away from his daughter in an increasingly decaying orbit, Darius fabricates a story of narrowly escaping a mass shooting late one night, breathlessly describing it to Eric and Beth (Beth Lisick) at their doorstep.

Once inside, there's a sublime moment that occurs in-camera during a pivotal scene. Adrenaline still racing, Darius's pulse softens as he recalls a fond memory of his daughter Max's birthday, shared in the same living room he once again finds himself a guest in; Albeit, a self-imposed one. A bead of sweat rolls down his right temple at the exact moment he looks up at Beth for what sympathy he can wrestle from her concerned expression. It's a disturbing moment of serendipity, sweat gathering on the nervous skin of his story. We the audience, after all, know better than his captive audience. Darius wasn't there at all.

Izzo deftly handles the increasing tension by never fully revealing how much is truly believed by Darius's family, nor how much time is left before they discover it's all an act; Or if they discover it at all. Beautifully photographed by Arlene Muller, the film glides through the twilight hours of a man running out of time, and his desperate attempt for a second chance at becoming the father he may have never been in the first place. Reminiscent of Bresson's Pickpocket, Izzo is fast becoming a new master of portraying human frailty, and the tragicomic circumstances that tighten around wayward souls believing they are either too deserving of salvation, or too clever to outwit their inevitable judgment.

I Was There Too is available for streaming on Vimeo and was named Short of the Week.

NewFilmmakers Los Angeles / Stage 5 - A discussion about "The Duel" →

Since 2007, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles has been providing a home for artists to share their creative voice in an environment that supports truth in cinematic storytelling. In addition to their monthly film festivals, DocuSlate, a entire day of documentaries, was added to their yearly programming in 2016 to increase awareness and widen opportunities for representation of true stories and personal narratives on screen.

Last December I enjoyed sitting down with NFMLA Board Chair Danny De Lillo for a discussion about my creative process behind The Duel, and the unique challenges inherent in “translating” someone else’s truth. As an artistic custodian of my own family experiences which have been transmuted into past works, making these connections during our discussion was illuminating for me, and helped me better appreciate the delicacy required for handling something as fragile as memory itself, especially when it belongs to someone else.

About: "NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) is a non-profit designed to showcase innovative works by emerging filmmakers from around the world, providing the Los Angeles community of entertainment professionals and film goers with a constant surge of monthly screening events."