THE BEST SHITTY PLAN

2015 | 4 min | found footage digital animation

Experimental essay film featuring a conversation with Max Liboiron about her essay "Recycling As A Crisis of Meaning." Found footage sourced from Google images. Music by Laurie Spiegel and Kadet Kühne.

Ch. 18 (VALENCIA:THE MOVIE/S)

2013 | 8 min | HD video, archival SD video & animation

An experimental documentary, juxtaposing playful digital animation with archival footage from the 1995 SF Dyke March and other real-world events and people depicted in the book with contemporary interviews with the real-life Iris to tell the chapter’s story while simultaneously reflecting on the attitudes of the time.  It was created as one of the chapters of the feature film Valencia: The Movie/s, an omnibus film adaptation of Michelle Tea's memoir Valencia (2000). 

Screenings & Awards:

• Jury Award, Best Narrative Feature, REELING: Chicago In'tl LGBT Film Festival
• Best Experimental Feature, POLARI26, Austin, TX
• Cleveland International Film Festival, Cleveland, OH
• Olympia Film Society, Olympia, WA
• Seattle Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Seattle, WA
• Tampa Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Tampa, FL
• Milwaukee LGBT Film Festival, Milwaukee, WI
• Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Vancouver, BC, Canada
• OUTFEST, Los Angeles, CA
• MIX/NY, New York, NY
• World Premiere, 2014 SF Int'l LGBT Film Festival, SF, CA

REEPERBAHN

2002 | 14 min |  DV video

Experimental, poetic documentary about a tense visit by a Jewish-American video artist with her close friend, a German dancer living on The Reeperbahn — the main drag of Hamburg’s “St. Pauli” red-light district.  The work prods at German-Jewish relationship,  European history and control over representation.  Music by Down River.

selected screenings:

  • 2003 Reel New York, WNET Ch. 13

  • "Women with Vision," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

  • NY Video Festival, Walter Reade Theater. Lincoln Center, NY

  • Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago, IL

  • Art in General, New York, NY

  • DUTV Ch. 54, Philadelphia, PA

  • 2002 Vancouver Underground Film Festival, Vancouver, BC

 2003 Silver Plaque,  Chicago International Film Festival

GUM & TEA

2005 | 5 minutes | animated video | audio by EE Miller
Journal of Short Films, Vol. 10, 2008.

A collaborative meditation on intimacy and US currency; EE Miller’s stand-alone audio piece for radio, a fanciful proposition for the US President, is the inspiration for Topiary’s animation.  Created at MacDowell Colony.

selected screenings:

  • 2007  National Museum of Women in the Arts, Festival of Film & Media Arts, Washington, DC

  • 2007 Black Lily Festival, Philadelphia, PA

  • 2006 Darklight Film Festival, Dublin, Ireland

  • 2006 “PureScreen #16: Beta Test,” Castlefield Gallery, Mancheseter, UK

  • 2006 Athens Experimental Video Festival, Greece

  • 2006 London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, London, UK

  • 2006 MadCat Film Festival, San Francisco & US Tour

  • 2005 MIX/NY Festival, New York, NY

  • 2005 ‘Video Forge,” Jessica Murray Projects, NY

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Le Tigre: NEW KICKS

Music video for Le Tigre's single "New Kicks" from their album 'The Island' on Universal Records.   

2004 | 3 min | DV video

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LITTLE FRANKENSTEIN

2002 | 4.5 min  |  DV-NTSC video

An experimental documentary short, from the series: Embarrassment is the Key to Enlightenment.  An interview with an ex-roommate about living together and having a crush…
Cast: Zoey Kroll.
Music: Little Frankenstein on Rememory by Down River.

https://vimeo.com/18862717

selected screenings:

• 2003 Frameline SF Int’l LGBT Film Festival
• 2005 Reel NY, WNET Ch. 13  
• 2003 MIX/NY, New York, NY
• 2003 MIX/Brasil, São Paulo
• 2004 MIX/Bonn Biennale, Bonn, Germany
• 2015 #QUEERFAIL Festival, Radar, SF, CA.

THE SIRENS: Chapter 12 of THE ODYSSEY

2006 | 4 min | super 8 film & DV

 selected screenings:

• 2006 MIX/NY Festival, 3LD Center, New York, NY
• 2007 Cellspace, San Francisco, CA

Music by The Darklings

https://vimeo.com/18860973

“Sirens” is Ch 12 of the film compilation THE ODYSSEY, comprised of 24 short films each one created by a different filmmaker(s), telling the complete story of Homer's epic, produced by Bernadine Mellis as a DVD included in Pocket Myth #4: The Odyssey edited by Andrea Lawlor.  I created this chapter for the film project as well as editing the whole compilation and authoring the DVD edition.

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MOMENTUM

2000 | 4 min | super 8 film, Hi8 video & DV, DV-NTSC

An improvisational dance film shot in an abandoned lot in San Francisco on Super 8 film and Hi8 video.  Dancer: Marintha Tewksbury.

Music: Closer to Carbon

https://vimeo.com/18825037

selected screenings:

• 2008 "Dance on Screen," Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland
• 2005 "Move the Frame,' CUNY TV, New York, NY
• 2004 "Captured," Dance Theater Workshop, New York, NY

ATALANTA

1998 | 34 min | super 8 film 

A queer, dance-film adaptation of the Greek myth of Atalanta, the girl who can run as fast as the wind. Shot and edited entirely on super-8 film, on location in mythical San Francisco locations, the film was originally presented as a silent film with live orchestra and narration.  Featuring: Jessica Lutes, Remy Charlip, Monique Jenkinson, Miguel Gutierrez, Sue Roginski and Maryann Brooks.  Choreography by Marintha Tewksbury & Miguel Gutierrez. Original score composed by Kathrynn Lyle.

https://vimeo.com/18979108

screenings with live orchestra and narration:

  • 1998 Frameline’s SF Int’l LGBT Film Festival, Victoria Theater.

  • ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA, 1998.

selected festival screenings:

  •  ‘Scout,’ Threadwaxing Space, New York, NY, 1999.

  •  Image+Nation Festival, Montreal, QC, Canada, 1999.

  • Hamburg Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Germany, 2000

  • 12th Paris Lesbian Film Festival, Paris, France, 2000

  • The New Festival, New York, NY, 2000

  • University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 2001