stills from pallbearers (2025), experimental documentary, digital and 16mm and 8mm film (above and below).
pallbearers is an experimental personal documentary that follows the literal and emotional journey of my best friend phoebe ferguson and i, as we travel to see her mother’s grave for the first time in her life. traveling by plane, car, and train from portland, oregon to dublin, texas, the film follows our ten day journey to reunite mother and daughter.
pallbearers is a reshaping of the home movie and examination of grief in those who have lost parents. by deliberately choosing to use technological methods of capture that span decades (from super 8 to vhs to digital cameras), i call attention to the evolving nature of the home movie. phoebe’s mom used a vhs camera to capture her children and family; phoebe prefers disposable cameras; of late, my camera of choice is an 8mm film camera. as noted by susan sontag, “not to take pictures of one’s children, particularly when they are small, is a sign of parental indifference”– therefore, what must follow is that for those of us with fractured family histories, we are stuck in a vacuum where images were not captured (sontag 176). to be loved is to be captured, and for those who have lost that ability to be captured, we feel a void. by using cameras that span decades of innovation, and by turning the cameras towards one another, we choose to fill that void as subjects whose families were not always able to capture us.
this film is as much a home movie as it is a documentary for mass consumption.
stills from of myself (2024), animated essay, digital and 16mm film (above left and right).
sana sana (2021), documentary (above).
excerpt from survival movements (2022), experimental film, digital (above).
stills from mercy kills (2023), experimental film, digital (above left and right).
tati chavitage 