Commercial

"Commercial", more likely than not, is a final installment in a series of music videos, short films and feature films I would describe as "Americana Inverted". "Casa Grande" (2016), "Maya" (2016), "Last Kiss" (2017) are a few of my short films that portray an underbelly of desperation and coercion, while my narrative features "Palace" (2018) and "Pompano Boy" (2021) serve as setting-driven time capsules of withering social cohesion in rural Indiana and suburban South Florida.

I became re-attracted to music videos during the pandemic for three reasons:
1) As a musician, I was writing and recording a batch of songs that invigorated.
2) I began to appreciate, and subsequently inhabit, the music video as a unique place in visual pop culture where experimentation may still be welcome.
3) After a decade of writing and directing more muted dramas, I craved the opportunity to work with bigger (and physically real) set pieces and ensembles akin to "Seven Samurai" and "Star Wars." Whereas contemporary Western film often reflects its individualistic values through the repetitive use of single-shots of characters—more historical references, and Eastern references, more frequently frame for a collective, and can be visually rewarding for doing so. Thanks to years of growing the cinematic muscle of "stretching a dollar", the shorter run-time of a music video meant both ensemble and layered art direction could be feasibly obtained.

With inspiration ranging from Brecht to surrealist painters, "Commercial" portrays a world enveloped by advertising, and is more light-hearted than much of my filmography. It's self-funded from my work as a video producer, and acts as a direct sequel to the maximalist video "Eaten" (2023). The sandwiching of these tracks is reflected in the upcoming LP's track order.

After the audience is barraged with an array of ridiculous (yet familiar) commercials, advertisement once again gives way to genuine expression, ironically, in the setting of a geriatric corporate office.

The primary thumbnail image of "Commercial" doubles as the artwork for the single. This tableau features Ronald Reagan igniting a hookah with a U.S. dollar, next to a camel. As I was dreaming up the sequences for this video before the reignited conflict in Palestine, I discovered that the hyper-capitalistic and militaristic U.S. could be summarized through a depiction of this former leader parasitically entangled in Middle Eastern imagery. As for me, the figure on the ground—this pose was inspired by the Tang Ping ("lying flat") protest movement in China.

The video is punctuated by black frames to simulate channel-changing, and bookmarked by my use of a mask, meant to personify an every-man of sorts. Avoidance of authenticity is often required by an increasingly competitive culture and the status-driven relationships prone to emerge from it.

As I prepare to emigrate from my home country in 2025, I leave with an increased sense of permission, satisfaction and completion—thanks to this creative project and its collaborators. This is a celebration of the tactile, the man-made, and the role of independent artists as less tethered to the systems of power we must collectively denounce through sustained acts of peaceful protest, civil disobedience, and art-making.