A Great Day in Charm City

This is a 16 mm, black & white, cinema verite piece showing two of Baltimore's vanishing traditions. They represent times when magic enters the everyday. It is currently available on Amazon Prime. It screened in LA with the Marina Del Ray Film Festival in 2018 & in  NY at the Anthology Film Archives. It has also screened with the Puerto Madero Film Festival, Argentina, The Cutting Room, Nottingham, UK and Experiments in Cinema. It was included in the Very Best of Experiments in Cinema Anthology.

Porkchop & the 28th St North Carolina Watermelons

This is a 16 mm, black & white, cinema verite piece showing Porkchop selling his watermelons on a summer day in Baltimore. It is informed by street photography and the dreamlike elements of painting. It premiered in  LA with the Golden State Film Festival and in NY with the Bushwick Film Festival. It screeened with the Silicon Beach Miami Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Short Doc and with the Southern Colorado Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Award.

Jaime & the Tamales

Jaime & the Tamales is a 16 mm, black & white, cinema verite short depicting Jaime selling his tamales on a sunny day in Baltimore. It is imagistic & painterly, informed by my background in painting. It premiered in LA with the Silicon Beach Film Festival in April 2018 where it won Best Cinematography for Short Documentary and in NY with NewFilmmakers NY at the Anthology Film Archives. It made its world premiere May 2019 with the L'Age d'Or International Arthouse Film Festival in Kolkata, India, where it won Best Women's Film.

At The Border

San Ysidro is a major crossing point along the US-Mexico border. $750 million has created new buildings and inspection areas and rerouted highways. It's a place where signs warn that you are being watched and your conversations recorded. A place of congestion, tension and vibrant scenes that you'll find only here.

Skid Row, Los Angeles

This is from Design With Love, my book  documenting the work of young architects  across the USA.  
One of these communities is L.A.'s Skid Row, home to over 15,000 homeless men, women and children.
With a shortage of  housing,  many are forced to live on the sidewalks in makeshift shelters.
Many individuals and groups are trying to help but the problem is growing.

Cao's House

Cao’s House(13min 47sec) is a short documentary about my grandfather who recalls his memories of his father and his father’s houses which were burned down during the Wenxi Fire of 1938. The presence of the buildings in the documentary stands in contrast with the absence of the houses that feature in my grandfather's narrated memories. The history of the Cao family echoes the larger experience of the city that was burned down during the Wenxi Fire of 1938 along with the dramatic changes experienced afterwards.


Feature length version of Moving Home (in progress)

The response to Moving Home has been warm, welcoming, and challenging. The Short Documentary was a test of faith and will power. The feature is an answer to the call to stretch my abilities farther. With eighty percent of the film already shot, the help of the Baker Artist Grant will help add a few new layers of visual effects in post production. Most importantly funding will help the feature films presence in competition.

Something to Cry About (2018)

Synopsis
In Something to Cry About three trans-masculine identified people watch a movie or television show that makes them cry. The result is a touching and humorous short documentary that explores the difficulty of expressing intimacy between men, the complexities of desire, and the gift of a good cry.

Screenings
Tampa Bay International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
Translations Film Festival
Maryland Film Festival
Hyde Park Picture House Leeds

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