Reflections and Projections

A short non-fiction film about the lack of touch for single people during the COVID-19 pandemic and how two queer, BIPOC friends sustain each other through communication and connection. RT:11 mins.

  • Rodney Evans
    Director
    Vision Portraits, Brother To Brother
  • Rodney Evans
    Writer
    Vision Portraits, Brother To Brother
  • Homay King
    Writer
  • Rodney Evans
    Producer
    Vision Portraits, Brother To Brother
  • Rodney Evans
    Key Cast
    Vision Portraits, Close To Home
  • Homay King
    Key Cast
  • Kjerstin Rossi
    Cinematographer
    Vision Portraits, Salacia
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 26 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    16mm, digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Rodney Evans

Rodney Evans is an award-winning fiction and documentary film writer, director and producer. His debut fiction feature Brother To Brother won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize in Drama. The film garnered four Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best First Film, Best First Screenplay, Best Debut Performance for Anthony Mackie and Best Supporting Actor for Roger Robinson. His latest feature documentary, Vision Portraits, celebrated its World Premiere at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival and won the Award for Best Documentary at Frameline-The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival in 2019 and the Award for Artistic Achievement at Outfest 2019. It played theatrically in major U.S. cities from August to October 2019. It aired nationally on America ReFramed and screened virtually for a week at the Whitney Museum in July 2020. Other directing credits include The Happy Sad, Billy and Aaron, The Unveiling, Close To Home and Two Encounters. Rodney was recently honored with the 2019 Frameline Award for Career Achievement and was a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow. He is a Ford/Mellon Disability Futures Fellow for 2021.

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Director Statement

While there have been numerous films looking at the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale from a macro level, there have been very few that examine it from a micro level looking at just two friends whose lives were impacted and the ways that communication between two individuals living alone is helping us get through what is sure to considered one of the most challenging periods of our lives.

The film illustrates on a granular how I as a queer, African-American, disabled, single, middle-aged filmmaker and my friend of over thirty years, Homay King also a queer, single, BIPOC, middle-aged, writer and scholar communicated for hours on a weekly basis in order to help stave off the psychological damage of isolation and loneliness. These emotions felt by many but maybe most acutely by single people and stemming from remote work, lack of physical touch and movement and sexual intimacy due to the fear of contagion which kept us all on lockdown in our individual apartments.