MATERIAL SOUNDS: LIVE SESSIONS, LB-INSOMNIA
2024
DIRECTOR
Annual live performances by Material Institute’s Recording Artist Residents.
Annual live performances by Material Institute’s Recording Artist Residents.
FESS UP
2018
DESIGNER
Fess Up is a two-fim package – Fess Up, a feature-length interview with Professor Longhair, and Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together – housed with a 38-page book.
Reviewed in the New Yorker.
SNO-BALL SEASON
PHOTOGRAPHERSummer in New Orleans is relentless. One day in May, attempting to beat the usual malaise in advance, I decided to photograph only joyful things.
Sno-ball stands soon were dominating the images. I was delighted by their iconography – plywood cut into circles and triangles, cool paintings of offerings like nachos and tamales – and the names of their flavors like Grasshopper and Tiger’s Blood. Almost every facade communicated playfulness and care, and things got just as interesting when I pulled back to see each structure within its environment.
One stand was owned by a preacher, one was owned by teenage girls, and another run by boys in rehab. The dual purpose business model was also popular. One stand doubled as a custom t-shirt shop, another a barber shop, and quite a few shared space with car detailers. Surrounding details emerged – the grass that grows through cracks in the pavement, emptied bottles of bleach and motor oil, headache powder, a sign for HIV testing. The most economically marginal neighborhoods had the most inventive stands, each one an oasis, attesting to willful joy amidst the city’s poverty and grit.
Sno-ball stands soon were dominating the images. I was delighted by their iconography – plywood cut into circles and triangles, cool paintings of offerings like nachos and tamales – and the names of their flavors like Grasshopper and Tiger’s Blood. Almost every facade communicated playfulness and care, and things got just as interesting when I pulled back to see each structure within its environment.
One stand was owned by a preacher, one was owned by teenage girls, and another run by boys in rehab. The dual purpose business model was also popular. One stand doubled as a custom t-shirt shop, another a barber shop, and quite a few shared space with car detailers. Surrounding details emerged – the grass that grows through cracks in the pavement, emptied bottles of bleach and motor oil, headache powder, a sign for HIV testing. The most economically marginal neighborhoods had the most inventive stands, each one an oasis, attesting to willful joy amidst the city’s poverty and grit.
BAYOU MAHARAJAH
2013
CO-EDITOR/CO-WRITER
A feature-length documentary about pianist James Booker.
Awards:
Oxford American- Best Southern Film 2013
New Orleans Film Festival- Audience Award Louisiana Feature 2013
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities - Documentary Film of the Year 2014
Très Excellente.