Collaborations
At various times I have contributed films or video for performances by other artists. Included in this list is Prom Night in Kansas City, a full-length documentary feature I made in collaboration with my wife, Hali Lee, in 2002.
Prom Night in Kansas City (video, 58 min, color, sound, 2002)
At the dawn of the new millennium, my wife Hali Lee and I began filming a documentary feature about a remarkably diverse set of high school kids getting ready for that vexatious annual ritual called prom. We were a two-person crew, with myself on camera and Hali on sound, sharing the work of directing and producing. At first, we edited for storytelling in the pure cinema-verité mode. Later, we added a voiceover that represented Hali’s ambivalent point of view: she had grown up in Kansas City watching the prom kids come out every spring and had enjoyed the pageantry but wondered what the point was. Prom Night premiered in New York at Lincoln Center, as part of the Independent Feature Project, and in Los Angeles at the 2002 AFI Film Festival.
“Strikes an audience chord of collective nostalgia.” --Variety
“Mostly you'll find yourself falling for the film's young subjects: Smurf, an irrepressibly optimistic kid determined to become Westport High's prom king; Oliver, a brainy dissident who regards prom as a meaningless waste of time but as an interesting sociological phenomenon; a lesbian couple going to the "Passages" prom (one wears a dress, the other a tux); and students at the conservative and highly religious Center Place Restoration School, where each girl's prom outfit must conform to specifications regarding spaghetti straps, cleavage, slit skirts and bare midriffs.” --Robert E. Butler, The Kansas City Star
Chutes and Ladders Company
I collaborated with Karen Williams and the Chutes and Ladders Company on several productions between 1984 and 1989, including shooting a film in Indonesia for Anulah, Let Them Eat Cake in 1989. Below is a list of productions and venues.
1984
“Glee,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladders Company, Theater for the New City, New York, NY
“The Single Frame-Up,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladder Company, Merce Cunningham Theater, New York, NY
“The Single Frame-Up,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladder Company, New Theater, New York, NY
1985
“The Single Frame-Up,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladders Company Cash Performance Space, New York, NY
1986
“Paperback Edition,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladders Company, Westbeth Theater Center, New York, NY
1988
“Open Ground” Film collaboration for dance performance by C Loise J, Resurgence Festival, Kansas City, Missouri
“Glee,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladders Company, Theater for the New City, New York, NY
1989
“Anulah, Let Them Eat Cake,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladders Company, Theater for the New City, New York, NY
“Anulah, Let Them Eat Cake,” film collaboration for multimedia performance by the Chutes & Ladders Company, Theater Graha Bhakti Budaya, Jakarta