JUNE 2026 UPDATE
sharp and open, leave me alone, and sleeping less every night edition
Greetings to you from Portland, Oregon, where utility bills rise proportionate to wait times at inner SE yak burrito food carts Let’s begin:
WHAT HAPPENED IN MAY (BROAD STROKES):
- had a photo published in Lenscratch
- first album review for Empty Conversation by impermanent marker
- attended the joyous Frederick Wiseman celebration
BEST THINGS I SAW in May: Sweet Sugar Rage by Harclyde Wallcott and Honor Ford-Smith, Adjustment and Labor by Frederick Wiseman, Boxing Gym by Frederick Wiseman, La Danse by Frederick Wiseman, Monrovia Indiana by Frederick Wiseman, The Asphalt Jungle by John Huston (at Academy Theater), The Sheep Detectives (which i attended reluctantly but managed to enjoy), Take a Flippin’ Hike (webseries by Rale Sidebottom).
BEST THINGS I READ in May: Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel, Lost Light by Michael Connelly, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Color Television by Danzy Senna (in progress)
Therein ends the low-res jpeg of your recently-adopted tuxedo cat, now on to 300 dpi file which fully captures her magisterial essence:
BRIAN LINDSTROM
My friend Brian Lindstrom died on May 15th.
Brian was a sui generis documentary filmmaker and an stellar human being and inspiration to me on both fronts. And though those words are all authentic and true, words can neither capture the positive of his presence nor its negation by his absence. His death has been like a depth charge exploding repeatedly in slow motion.
We met Brian and his wife in 2004, shortly after we arrived in Portland after years in Los Angeles, where i had been attempting with difficulty to make inroads in the film industry. LA is a place where the mere appearance of power, in whatever form, has actual meaning. Where a person’s value is instantly reduced to how they can benefit your creative aims, in whatever form. What an utter surprise then, coming from years of toil and aspiration in LA, to meet a filmmaker as pure and true as Brian Lindstrom. A filmmaker with no apparent ambition beyond serving the people in his films. How can this be? But Brian Lindstrom was a person who worked in service of others, who made films in service of others. I have not crossed paths with any other human beings who do or have done this, who lived and worked how he did, fully integrated, community-minded, ego-less as one can be. If you didn’t know him I really recommend the below ted talk, which manages to embody his warmth and defining ethos, as well as this obit in the LA Times. And of course the films he made. Finding Normal, To Pay My Way With Stories, Mothering Inside, Alien Boy for starters. Seek them out. You will be all the richer for it.
In 2006 he asked me to help him on a project to work with youth from families in recovery to help them learn the tools of cinematic storytelling and then make a short film. We met with the kids every weekday from 10 am to 2 pm at Marshall High School and then at the end of 3 weeks we shot a short film. On the above postcard you’ll note he lists us together as filmmakers, as if we had some sort of equivalent agency or stature on this project. The fact is at the time I was only a filmmaker in aspiration. Though I had written screenplays, I had yet to direct a single thing and I was quaking internally about how to begin and meanwhile he had a celebrated, growing body of work. The fact that he did this, defining me in this manner, knowing what it would mean to me and how validating it would feel for me, is a perfect thumbnail of his grace and selflessness. When the project ended he took me for ice cream in outer SE and revealed he had once worked there.
I miss you Brian. My love and deep admiration for you will continue. I’m making a short film for you. xo
Okay.
And now I’m going to type out the rest of this post as if everything is normal and May was just another normal month with normal, un-shattering things happening:
PHOTO PUBLISHED
This is a photo of MM and our son, some years ago in Hoyt Arboretum, published last month in a mother’s day photo exhibition for Lenscratch. (This photo is also forthcoming in another publication so I’ll say more about that when the time comes.) Meantime, you can see the other Mother’s Day photos from Lenscratch here.
FREDERICK WISEMAN FESTIVAL
This festival to honor Frederick Wiseman on the recent occasion of his death at 93 was a buoyant enterprise, and a corrective to the ills of the world and of the local Portland ills also. All of his 44 films shown chronologically 24/7 back to back in 3 different environments at one venue. Not merely the joy of his films themselves, but the collective nature of the event, and for a few days knowing that no matter what time of day it was or what you were doing, his films were playing. Man it was like some sort of celestial affirmation and so very cool. By happenstance or providence my daughter was out of town for the week so some of my parental duties were relaxed enough to get me to five of the films: Meat, The Store, Boxing Gym, La Danse, Monrovia Indiana. It filled the spirit. humanity in and alongside process.
MUSIC REVIEW
The album Empty Conversation (released at the end of 2025) got its first official review and it was positive. This is a tiny piece of dry land in a raging ocean but I’ll take it. You can read the review here and listen to the album here.
If you haven’t heard of impermanent marker yet you can find us on bandcamp. In addition to Empty Conversation, we released an EP last month called my mistake and have another EP forthcoming called unsafe forever. follow impermanent marker on bandcamp to stay apprised or watch this space.
PROJECT UPDATES
Apology Ghost (5 min) will have its international premiere June 20 at the International Experimental Fiction Film Festival in Manchester, England. This festival puts focus on projects that straddle narrative and experimental or that are told in unconventional ways (note: and looks absolutely awesome) and I am so very honored to be included, as this project is sort of an in-between-worlds project, very much a narrative but not one told in an easily digestible fashion. More about Apology Ghost here.
How Do You Move in This World (2 min) this experimental narrative will world premiere in Chicago on July 29th at the Vastlab experimental festival. All filmmakers were sent a list of 9 questions to answer about their filmmaking process. Below is my video response. more about How Do You Move in This World here.
Sister/Brother (narrative feature, 75 min) - this is getting close. lots more to say in the coming weeks. Learn more about Sister/Brother here.
Grief Stick (documentary short, 17 min) out to festivals. A fall screening in Portland is gathering form. stay tuned. More about Grief Stick here.
ETC
impermanence clock
days I’ve been alive 19,710 | days until i turn 80 9,509
music
repeat of info above: my music project impermanent marker is on bandcamp. I released an EP called my mistake last month and will be releasing another very soon called unsafe forever. follow me on bandcamp to stay apprised. or watch this space.
running
currently training for Peachtree Road Race July 4, 2026. the regular running has been so good for me on a couple fronts. More to come.
photography
To purchase prints of my photos go here.
fivver account!
I offer film editing, screenplay proofing, voice acting, and editing your kid’s AAU basketball footage into a reel. Do you have need of any of those? Does your loved one or friend? If so please go here. I could really use the support.
Okay, that’s it for now. I really want to say something pithy and profound all at once to sew this whole thing up but my mind is a blank except for: Remember to watch the films of Brian Lindstrom and to be extra nice to someone today for no demonstrable reason.
xo bp
Mother's day photo is great!