Bio
Research areas:
Experimental Film; Aesthetics
About my teaching:
My teaching is both intertextual and interdisciplinary. Rather than teaching individual films in isolation, I attempt to situate films as part of a broader cinematic “conversation,” helping students to analyze the ways that filmmakers appropriate and respond to the ideas of other filmmakers. I also aim to foreground cinema’s imbrication with other mediums, including literature, painting, music, and photography.
How I came to teach what I teach:
When I was a teenager, I saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and I was blown away. It was beautiful, provocative, and mysterious. For the first time, I began to understand film as an art form. Kubrick helped me fall in love with weird cinema, and I now try to share that passion with my bewildered students.
Current research:
Found Footage Films. I am currently writing a book about cinematic “re-mixes,” that is, films that are created by manipulating, editing, and recontextualizing preexisting films.
Outside the University:
I enjoy cognac, stand-up comedy, and underground hip-hop. I also like watching silent comedies with my nine-year-old son. (He adores Buster Keaton.)