documentaries and other journalistic video
reckoning | a documentary
"reckoning" follows former Township High School District 214 students Kaylyn Ahn and co-director Sriman Narayanan as they attempt to explore Illinois's second-largest public high school district's pursuits toward racial equity.
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I wrote, co-directed and edited this short documentary in seven weeks in the spring of 2023.
See It to Believe It | a short documentary
“See It to Believe It” tells the story of two protest movements in Chicago-- the 1980s Free South Africa movement and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement -- and how they managed to grab the attention of millions of people by employing vastly different strategies.
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I interviewed subjects for, wrote, fully animated and edited this documentary in nine weeks in the fall of 2021.
Why We Know Nothing about AI Music | an explainer
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I fully wrote and animated this explainer piece about AI music in the fall of 2022. The experience allowed me to report on a topic I was passionate about, and I chatted with a prominent musician in generative art and expand into more experimental styles of animation.
art critique and analysis
Life & Art
Independently written, shot, and edited, Life & Art is an attempt at giving contemporary art the respect it deserves.
Episode I
In the series’s pilot, I dove into what exactly makes Tolstoy so great, and watched as the same ideas he put forth in the 1800s are presented once again in our era, by way of Pixar’s Soul and Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues. Those ideas— learning to love the simple parts of life— they extend beyond just books, movies, and music.
Episode II
After focusing inward in Episode I, I turned the lens out for Episode II, honing in on what it means to love another person in our modern era. In doing so, we talked about Andre Açiman’s 2007 novel Call Me By Your Name, Frank Ocean’s masterpiece Blond, and one of my all-time favorite songs, Car Seat Headrest’s Bodys.
Episode III
Episode III was the definition of a passion project, in which I focused on two of my favorite artists of all time: Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. I talked about what makes art definably great and my own list of figures that I consider when deciding what to share with people. For this video, I traveled far west in Illinois and shot footage at a bird sanctuary— without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. At the end of the project, I play Come to Life on piano, a Kanye West song that’s never failed to make me tear up.
Episode IV
It's scary how much my mood depends on the sun. Chicago winters are rough. Every shift is the prospect of pain, if not from the whipping wind, then at least from the looming dread of war, or our burning world. When I turn over in bed and find the indifferent gray skies outside of my window, I want to turn away from feeling. In this episode, I tried to channel everything that comes with that. Who am I when I try to run from my pains and fears? Why do I feel like less of myself? How do I fix that?
weekly group video music reviews
Burbs: Final Digest
Weekly music reviews made simple.
Final Digest is a way our music staff at Burbs came together to share our thoughts on the new albums we felt passionately about, a series I fully edited and produced.
