Private Project

Householder

Householder (noun): A polysemous word. For Jerome David Salinger, author of “The Catcher in the Rye” a Buddhist state of being on the path towards enlightenment. An attempt to process personal trauma, the result of his participation in some of the most violent battles of WWII. Yet, for mathematician Alston Scott Householder it was simply a surname. However, his discovery of a mathematical transformation used in the global application of numerical linear algebra would add yet another definition for the word. A personal essay pondering an introductions that never occurred, conversations that never happened, and what might have been.

  • Rory John Brosius
    Story/Production/Camera/Audio/Edit
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Non-Fiction
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 14, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED Epic, 16mm Archival Footage
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4.5.3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography

Rory John Brosius (Born April 27, 1984 Glens Falls, New York) is an American Post-Production Supervision/Technical Support Specialist, Experimental Filmmaker, and Moving Image Artist. From 2003-2006 he attended Ithaca College's Roy H. Park School of Communications, studying under his mentor, Experimental Filmmaker and Moving Image Artist, David Gatten. Since 2005 his work has explored specific events in the historic record that have resulted in secondary advancements in various fields of science. His early works have been screened in both the United States and Canada. Recently, he has begun exploring trauma and human response in the face of great change. His work employs a hybrid film/digital image making process. He will often capture images several times over to create unique and visually specific elements. This is accomplished by filming original or accessing archival footage, playing it back on various devices, and then re-recording them. This process results in new and unique versions of images. In 2007 he stepped away from his personal work and relocated to the Los Angeles area. There he began his professional career, working as a Media Archive Supervisor, RED Digital Cinema Technical Support Specialist, and a Post-Production Supervisor. To date, he has helped deliver 100+ hours of network, streaming, and OTT content for clients including Netflix, NBCUniversal, TVOne, HGTV, Discovery, and several others. In 2022, he relocated to Glens Falls, NY with his wife and son and completed his first work since 2007 (Householder).

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Director Statement

But one can never go back, not even in imagination. After the loss of innocence, only the ultimate of knowledge can balance the wobbling pivot. Yet I suggest that there is a pursuit of knowledge foreign to language and founded upon visual communication, demanding a development of the optical mind, and dependent upon perception in the original and deepest sense of the word.

Stan Brakhage
Metaphors on Vision

These words have been in my mind for the past several years. Although the concept of “learning to see” has become something of an endless endeavor, I have used that goal as a motivational device in my image making process. I am a filmmaker who takes cues from the created elements of the world around me. I strive to use these concepts in order to better understand the scenarios and events that make up our history.

My interests (visually) extend beyond a mere viewpoint. I am attempting to dissect the language of the everyday. I want to understand if the objectivity of the image can become that of an independent moment. Is this possible or is the image-maker’s involvement alone enough to void that possibility?

I feel that Brakhage wanted us to move past the idea of even montage into a new realm of existence. If we learn the world then can we unlearn it? I believe we can. But only if we acknowledge the constant presence of perception that he is addressing. As a visual artist I have become infatuated with the possibility of a genuine moment within the context of an organized film. I want to make the lack of control a type of discipline for artistic creation.

I am striving to maintain a living relationship with the world around me regardless of my alleged pollution (of it and by it). I want to see its poetry, but I want to collect it in a way that allows the image to illustrate that poetry independently. My goal is to have objectivity, while sharing creative control with the collaborators that are the images themselves. Because, those images are part of an existing reality in which I understand them only based upon my developing perception. The presence of the world around us deserves our respect. I attempt to demonstrate that respect through the practice of my art form.