like a stone or flower

Three artists of different generations reflect on the ability of art to transcend rationality and logic.

  • Kaiya Jordan
    Director
  • Agelio Batle
    Key Cast
  • Tamara Chu
    Key Cast
  • Mika Jordan
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Art, Reflective, Experimental
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 26, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Berkeley High School
  • Mill Valley Film Festival
    Mill Valley, CA
    United States
    October 12, 2024
    Official Selection
  • SFFILM Festival
    San Francisco, CA
    United States
    April 28, 2024
    Official Selection
  • SF Doc Fest
    San Francisco, CA
    United States
    June 1, 2024
    Official Selection
  • CAAM Fest
    San Francisco, CA
    United States
    May 18, 2024
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Kaiya Jordan

Kaiya Jordan is a 18-year-old filmmaker based in Berkeley, California. Holding a deep passion for film’s endless possibilities for creative and emotional expression, she can usually be found on the hunt, seeking interesting stories and people, or editing late into the night.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"like a stone or flower" encompasses a period of exploration within my filmmaking journey - utilizing documentary as an experimental method of storytelling and allowing myself to let the narrative flow naturally out of ideas stemming from conversations between myself and the artists I interviewed.

During post-production for "like a stone or flower," I struggled with pulling a mere ten minutes from the nine hours of interviews I had collected. The documentary's narrative felt like a living being in a perpetual state of evolution, always dancing out of my grasp. After weeks of listening, re-listening, and painstakingly cutting the interviews, I found myself with a collection of moments in my conversations with the artists that had resonated deeply with my own creative experience, shifted my perspective, or put into words a concept or feeling I could not. The documentary’s narrative ended up being about the artists reflecting on the ability of art to go beyond logic and language, a concept I came to realize I, too, was grappling with.

The film combines the artists’ personal work with various mediums, such as video collage, cyanotypes, and universally recognized artworks, to help concretize the abstract ideas of 'what is art?' and 'how does it hold meaning across different people and generations?'.