Emerson thesis -- Film and media art

Overview "Strangers is a short narrative film that focuses on a young Southern woman, Kathy, who moves to New England for college. She tries to form bonds with others but is hampered by her own difficulty with emotional communication and sense of cultural isolation and displacement. All of this comes to a head when she meets Isabel, a fellow outsider whom she tries to bond with only to fail due to her own shortcomings. The piece focuses on the effects of isolation, loneliness and deals with regret...

Overview "Talking To The Wind is a feature length documentary about the aftermath of a three year long man-made drought in Maharashtra, India that resulted in mass suicides - numbers reaching 1100 per year. Using a poetic, essayistic and observational approach, the film unfolds the reasons behind these farmer suicides - decades of exploitation of groundwater for short term gains and societal pressures of marrying off their daughters with huge amounts of dowry. Intimate and eyeopening, Talking To The...

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"Terrorismo is an animated graphic narrative about three friends who decide that they can no longer live a life of poverty and discrimination. They decide that their only course of action is to gain the attention of terrorist in hopes of joining him in his crusade of violent social change." -- Abstract

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"'The Backside of God' is an experimental documentary utilizing archival footage, digital glitch, chemical abstraction, and direct animation to explore the intricacies of the artist's relationship with their late uncle, Doug Seidel." -- Abstratct

Overview "The Great Big Infinity is an exploration of the ceremonial potential of media. The central concept is inspired by a fusing of ceremonial processes including the despacho ceremony, a layered healing bundle, archetypal mesa work, and fire ceremonies. The Ceremonial livestreams create a visual language where time is echoed and expanded. In this way it looks the way ceremonies can feel where time is looped and expanded. The advantages of online ceremonies are that people can join from multiple...

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"Cheng returns to Guangzhou after his maternal grandfather's death during his final summer break in the US. Jetlag, the loss of his grandfather and moving to a new place keeps him between the past and present reality. He gradually learns how the death affects everyone in his family. In the process he gets to know them as individuals rather than simply as different roles in the family." -- Abstract

Overview "The multiplatform documentary film, "​The Mississippi," reflects back on Pare Lorentz's ​"The River" - 81 years later.​ Historically, it is a present day reflection on what Lorentz so clearly and passionately described in the first twenty minutes of "​The River." To quote Lorentz's script​, the story, the outrage, and the passion that he expressed about the Mississippi River still exists, "Poor land makes poor people." "We built a hundred cities and a thousand towns - But at what a cost."...

Overview "The Night is a three-channel video installation. It is based on a Holorhyme poem which is about the miscommunication between a couple while they are having an indirect conversation during the night. The conversation between reality and dream indicates the difference between verbal words and external meanings of the narrator. As the expression starts, the three channels show the different stages of the man and woman's understanding of each other's words and the scene goes from reality to...

Overview "A psychological, suspense-drama following 25 year old Mickey McVeigh over the course of one fateful shift at a Billiards Bar in rural Connecticut. Mickey's morning begins by facilitating aggressive, intense sexual intercourse with her pseudo-partner and long-time friend, Adam. Mickey races over to work a closing shift at the bar. It is unusually quiet even for a sleepy, winter Sunday. Mickey soon meets the intriguing yet questionable Tennessee Baker, a customer she has never seen before. As...

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"19-year-old girl Ming is a loner who works the night shift at a convenience store. One day near the spring festival, her neighbor Rui invites her for a "special" dinner, which summons up her hidden past…" -- Abstract

Overview "The documentary film 'Three Feet Over Boston' explores the issue of sea level rise and how it will affect coastal cities, with a focus on the City of Boston. Boston is currently one of the first cities to proactively prepare for the effects of rising sea levels and the consequent vulnerabilities to flooding and storm surges on the landscape, the infrastructure, and the populations of the city. The film will explore how humans will have to contend with climate change in an age where...

Overview "'To Be Heard' follows an afro-latino poet as he stands at a crossroads between his artistic pursuits and his family. The film is meant to capture the struggle of growing up as the child of an immigrant, weighing the expectations of your family and the expectations one weighs onto oneself. The expectations of higher education pushes people to leave their communities, but this is more difficult to accomplish in a first generation family with no college graduates, especially being from a place...

Overview "'Trapped' is an experimental exhibition telling the story of the struggle with coming to terms with your sexuality, examined through the lens of 1970s queer culture and gender performance. The installation chronicles the story of one man, frozen in both time and his personal development, as he attempts to engage with the bright hopefulness of queer expression, only to be tamped down and destroyed by expectations of heteronormativity, addiction and the fear of his own femininity. 'Trapped'...

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"Turn Around is a comedy about a young man falling in love with a stranger that he finds online. He is addicted to the beautiful bubble the social network creates for him. But the bubble breaks the first time he meets this girl in person." --Abstract.

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"An interactive story that unfolds over the course of a work week. The game is designed as an exercise to explore whistleblower ethics. The user is also challenged to consider their own identity as they discover a world unfamiliar to them." --Abstract.

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"Undercovered is a coming-of-age short film that follows two kids who stumble into an uncomfortable confrontation – and a biology lesson – on a hot summer afternoon. While the film's comedic elements and highly stylized aesthetic create a playful tone, at its core the story explores underlying themes of feminism, the construction of sexuality, and the blurred line at which society separates children from adulthood." -- Abstract

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"Underside is a short narrative film about Oliver, a middle-aged man who lives out of his car. The film follows Oliver as he struggles to maintain his secret from everyone around him and keep his dignity intact. The film explores themes of anger, shame, and identity in contrast with what one person presents to the world and the reality of their life." -- Abstract

Overview "Much of the world has long exhibited a peculiar infatuation with Black people. From their hair type to their body type, the Western work remains captivated, mesmerized, and influenced by Black culture, so much so that it repeatedly is the subject of culture appropriation. Yet, Black people have faced and still face some of the worst racism, discrimination, and violence inflicted on them because of their Blackness. "Unlike Any Other" explores themes of culture appropriation, pride, loss,...

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"Waking Up Dead is a narrative short about Maggie, a young woman who wakes up the night after her own murder and goes on a quest not only for answers but also revenge upon the person who killed her." --Abstract.

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"'Wall, Mirror?' is an interactive visual installation designed to explore the mystery boundaries between reality and virtual reality. It is an experiment, through the form of interactive art, trying to raise people's awareness how technology can impact the way we see things. This is a designated gallery installation exploring the relationships between human and interior space." -- Abstract