Roles: Director, Shooter, Editor.
In 2019, I traveled to Guatemala to direct, shoot and edit this short film for Seva Foundation's MacArthur $100 million grant application, for which Seva has recently made it to the top 100 of many hundreds of world-class applicants. More updates on the grant are expected this summer. Thanks to Brian Torres for his assistance as shooter while on location in Guatemala City.
Cinematography Reel for Nine Mile Productions - My upcoming production company founded by myself and my partner Amy Saunder.
Role: Director of Photography
Roles: Cinematographer, editor.
In June, following several months of lockdown, we spent a weekend at a beautiful, remote location in the desert. We knew we wanted to shoot a dance film in the otherworldly terrain, but didn’t have specific material prepared. Once we arrived, the landscape largely took over the creative process for us as we improvised movement, Amy Saunder moving as a dancer and Joe Raffanti moving as a filmmaker, in collaboration with the vibrant formations all around us. This is the resulting piece, “Oceans Ago”. A meditation on time, it is informed by what seems to be a common experience brought on by the pandemic: of time being somehow both fleeting while also standing still.
It is set to Thom Yorke's “Suspirium”, which we had listened to on the drive to this place, and which seemed to resonate with the themes that we discovered along the way and in the landscape itself. We do not own any rights to the music and are not monetizing this project, but no other music we have tried as a score has come close to the perfect fit offered by “Suspirium”.
One side note is that we drove through the Navajo Reservation to get to this location, and in the morning dropped off several boxes of supplies for the town of Kayenta, Arizona, the community of which has been horribly affected by COVID-19. Like the rest of the reservation, this community has been far more adversely affected by the virus than anywhere else in the country - many residents lack access to running water, not to mention the severe need for PPE and other critical supplies. If you would like to learn more, or donate to support these communities, you can check out nndoh.org/donate.html
Roles: Director, Writer, Director of Photography, Editor
Roles: Camera operator, motion graphics.
In 2013, I had the opportunity as Seva Foundation's in-house video producer to partner with the Mill Valley Film Group to produce this micro-documentary for Seva's 35th Anniversary Gala. The project was directed and produced by Will Parrinello. I had the pleasure of working as camera operator on interviews, supplying b-roll footage, creating motion graphics and supporting the writing and editing of the film.
