Masterpiece

The first seed of Masterpiece was planted in 2018.

At the time, I was married and wrestling with challenges that many couples face like communication, expectations, boundaries, and the growing distance that can occur between two people who genuinely care for one another. The idea came from a desire to explore those struggles through art, but I wasn't yet equipped to tell the story with the understanding or perspective it deserved.

Ironically, one of the first conversations I ever had with my producing partner, Miguel Gonzalez-Floyd, was pitching him an early version of what would eventually become Masterpiece. It was call Paint at the time. The concept intrigued us, but we both felt there was something missing. Rather than forcing the project into existence, we chose to develop our creative partnership first.

To test our collaboration, we made a small no-budget short film called Music Box. Much to our surprise, it found an audience on the festival circuit and opened doors we never expected. When people asked us, "What's next?" we followed it with Morendo, our first crowdfunded short film, which further challenged us as filmmakers and storytellers.

Yet throughout those years, Masterpiece never left the conversation.

The story remained in the background, evolving alongside our own lives and experiences. As time passed, I realized the film was no longer about assigning blame, being right, or documenting a specific relationship. It became an exploration of something much more meaningful, how two people can deeply love one another, hurt one another, and still find a path toward understanding and forgiveness.

Looking back, I now see that Music Box, Morendo, and Masterpiece are spiritually connected. Together they form what Miguel and I have come to call the "Love and Loss Trilogy." Each film examines love through a different lens. Music Box explored acceptance. Morendo explored hopelessness. Masterpiece explores forgiveness.

What makes Masterpiece particularly special to me is that it tells its story almost entirely through movement, imagery, color, and emotional action alone. Relationships are often difficult to articulate with words. The most important moments between people frequently happen in silence, in gestures, expressions, and actions. By removing dialogue, we challenged ourselves to communicate those emotional truths in their purest form.

More than anything, this film is about recognizing the humanity in one another. It is about accepting imperfections, doing the work to repair what has been broken, and understanding that the people we love are not obstacles to our happiness, but collaborators in creating something larger than ourselves.

Nearly eight years after the initial idea was conceived, I finally felt ready to tell this story

Masterpiece represents the culmination of years of creative growth, friendship, and lived experience. It is the most personal film I have ever made, but I hope audiences see pieces of their own relationships reflected within it. Because while every relationship is different, the desire to be understood, forgiven, and loved is something we all share.