MARCH 2026 UPDATE
susurrating in the early dawn edition
Greetings from Portland, Oregon, where the air is clear, the trees are green, and the property taxes are levied to fund well-meaning but hard-to-explain abstract municipal machinations. Let’s begin:
WHAT HAPPENED IN FEBRUARY (BROAD STROKES):
- my short film Apology Ghost played at the very excellent McMinnville Short Film Festival (more below)
- I am back into editing Sister/Brother actively after a run of semi-dormant months.
- I finished a draft of a pilot script for a limited series (hopefully more to come on that.)
- several of my photos got accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of a literary magazine (more to come when I know it)
BEST THINGS I READ in February: The Closers by Michael Connelly. also see below
BEST THINGS I SAW in February: 1917, If I had Legs I’d Kick You (at Tomorrow Theater), I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not. also see below.
Typically, I don’t separate my books or movie consumption by any container aside from date consumed but since February is Black History Month, and further since I felt a pull this year to go deeper than I usually do I’m notating it here. This desire was primarily initiated by a day in the third week of January where - needing to kill time at the Albina Library while my son was at basketball practice nearby - I randomly grabbed The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience off the shelf at the library from the art books and photography section and got tractor-beam pulled in to a reality which I have had the sheer luxury of observing from a distance all my life decided to go all in for the month of February, to watch only cinema and read only books that fit the bill (exceptions listed above). One section of The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience referenced The Weeping Tree by Anne C. Bailey, which regards an 1859 slave auction (the largest on record), and I felt a white-hot, I-have-to-read-this-right-now sensation spread up my spine. I put The Weeping Tree on hold and, three days later when it arrived, I read it. Around the same time my wife handed me Percival Everett’s The Trees, and suddenly it was February and I was off and running:
Black History Month read: The Weeping Tree by Anne C. Bailey, The Trees by Percival Everett, Tulsa 1921 by Randy Krehbiel, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, King by Jonathan Eig, The Come-up by Jonathan Abrams (in progress)
Black History Month watched: Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash, I Am Somebody and Integration Report 1 both by Madeline Anderson, A Time For Burning by Barbara Connell & William C. Jersey, Mandabi by Ousmane Sembène, Black Panthers by Agnes Varda, A Different Image by Alile Sharon Larkin, Talking About Trees by Suhaib Gasmelbari, Will and Twice as Nice both by Jessie Maple, Nothing but a Man by Michael Roemer, Cane River by Horace Jenkins, Soleil Ô by Med Hondo, Malcom X by Spike Lee (in 70 mm at the Hollywood!), Hunting Party by Ibrahim Shaddad, Say Amen Somebody by George T. Nierenberg, Losing Ground by Kathleen Collins, A Certain Morning by Fanta Regina Nacro, Marseille apres la guerre by Billy Woodberry.
When I type that out, I guess that’s a lot for four weeks. I could/should say something about each of these books and films but lest I subject you to the ramblings of a white man in his 50s at last taking heed of realities and iniquities (to be mild) that have been happening around him for decades and beyond while he whined about say the bus being late or not getting into this or that film festival, I will merely say it was a cumulatively profound instructive enterprise that I continue to learn from, though those feel like empty words that don’t quite do justice to what it has felt like in toto. Films that I am still thinking about are: Talking About Trees, a documentary about 4 Sudanese filmmakers later in life attempting to get a cinema up on its feet in the city of Omdurman and the obstacles they encounter; Nothing But a Man which features amazing black-and-white photography and pitch-perfect performances; Will which has a haunting energy, great acting and a real document of its time cinematically and culturally; Hunting Party which while made in Germany by an African filmmaker has an extremely western feel and historical relationship to present day; Soleil Ô which explores French revulsion towards Mauritanian immigrants among other things and which feels heart-breakingly undated and relevant and thusly depressing as shit, which is offset by the energizing nature of the filmmaking, which manages to be hilarious and devastating at once. All of these films are A+. All currently on Criterion Channel.
Therein is the close of the of the salad bar, now on to the buttermilk biscuits, slow-aged ham, and bone-broth gravy part of this posting.
McMinnville Film Festival
Had an outstanding time at the McMinnville Film Festival for the Oregon premiere of Apology Ghost. Sitting in a darkened theater with perfect projection and sound watching films I have no foreknowlege about is pretty much by dream experience generally speaking but throw in this festival’s loving vibes and detailed attention to filmmaking/filmmakers a mere hour drive from my front door on a couple of unseasonably clear and beautiful days in late February then it’s almost like I died and was inhabiting my aspirational idea of the afterlife.I was able to see 5 blocks of short films and each one was stellar.
Best things I saw:
Les belles cicatrices by Raphaël Jouzeau - a couple revisiting their demise. this one suffused with the ache of breakup, the great divide between people who once were connected. surreal and beautiful (animation block).
Il burratiino e la balena by Roberto Catani - puppet attempts to become child. sound and repetition use to great effect here (animation block)..
Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado by Natalia León- a woman returns home to Mexico for past/present reckoning. holy moly, this one creeps up on you and flattens you. devastating (animation block).
Way of the Shepherd by Matthew Boyd. a Peruvian shepherd working in Berkeley, CA. straightforward but moved me (environmental block).
Stew to Eat by Nathaniel Jameson + Alex Saltiel. two men make a stew and in doing so journey into an theatrical german expressionistic world. this was the balls-out kind of bizarre film you just let wash over you and internally mutter ‘fuck yes’ at various intervals. loved. (experimental block).
It Doesn’t Pass by Dan Lopez. a man is caught in seeming endless loop of liminal space in a small town in the middle of nowhere. brisk and dark and effective.(experimental block).
Making Beauty by Tammy Salzl. a young artist and her questionable art. this is grounded in reality but with odd surreal details and it gets odder the more it continues. (experimental block).
Borrowed from the Earth by Zach Johaneson. an exploration of Blackfeet Indians, their language, and their symbiotic relationship with horses. This was somehow intimate and majestic all at once, with a clearly substantial budget to film horses thundering across mountain plains at sunset and at a racetrack. poetic and moving. (native american block).
Redbird by Emma Barrow. 3 generations of Cherokee mothers and daughters dealing with loss and transition. scene of the salt argument at the stove and the last shot of the movie in particular were so good. (native american block).
Pekewa by Woodrow Hunt and Olivia Camfield. a brief exploration of dams and their impacts on multiple levels. very effective experimental documentary, dispiriting and inspiring in equal proportion but in different ways. (native american block).
Of the five blocks I saw, my favorite was the Experimental/A Bit Strange block but that’s really by default and because my film Apology Ghost was in it, so I’m clearly unfairly biased. All of us in that block had films that straddled different zones and/or were hard to put into easy classifications so I felt like I was with my people in the right end of the pool. The Q + A led by Heather Older was robust and solid and I left that night feeling inspired and alive, laying in my hotel bed feeling grateful.
What a glorious time! My only regret is that I had to return to Portland before the festival ended due to work obligations. I will be back. If I can have future short films play at McMinnville and nowhere else, and once a year make the trip back out and live inside a theater for four straight days i will be all the luckier for it.
PROJECT UPDATES
Sister/Brother (narrative feature, 75 min) - currently actively re-editing after several months of dormancy. The time off and fresh eyes were both so important. Hope to be done with a cut by June and have film finished by year’s end. If you’ve been waiting and waiting and/or feel like giving up on this one I feel your pain and all I can say is thank you for your patience and good will. More about the project here.
How Do You Move in This World (experimental narrative short, 2 min) Excited to report that this experimental narrative will world premiere this summer at the Vastlab experimental festival. Originally scheduled for March in Los Angeles, we will instead appear in the 2nd installment of this year’s fest, date and location forthcoming. more about the project here
Freak Farm (experimental short, 3 min) out to festivals.
Apology Ghost (experimental narrative short, 5 min) out to festivals. see above for reportage on latest screening.
Grief Stick (documentary short, 17 min) out to festivals. A couple 2026 Los Angeles screenings are beginning to take form. stay tuned.
ETC
impermanence clock
days I’ve been alive 19,618 | days until i turn 80 9,601
music
my music project impermanent marker released an EP last month called Future History. you can find it at bandcamp or on youtube.
running
Pretty good by the end of the month. Trying to be semi-regular again. 5K upcoming in April which will force outdoors to train despite my internal whinging about temperature or precipitation. one of these posts I’ll get more into detail about the running stuff but thus far there isn’t too much to report that warrants it.
photography
if you want to purchase prints of my photos please go here. Sold one recently to Alex B and would love to get one to you, maybe for your other home at the coast or for the just-painted condo downtown? think about it.
fivver account!
I offer film editing, screenplay proofing, and voice acting. 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. Thank you for reading. I hope you are doing well and still planning to become your best self this year. What’s stopping you? Reach out. Let’s make this March the best one yet. xo
The three black and white photos. Wow, so lovely. The library, the kitty cat and the spiders web... those are gorgeous. I've always wanted to learn how to take good photos but I am probably not smart enough to figure out how to use a complex camera... LOL... but those ones.. you definitely have the eye!