Kuleshov in 20202020

Kuleshov in 2020 is a short experimental documentary that shines a flickering light on personal perception and inequality.

In the early 1900’s, Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov made a short film showing an expressionless man intercut with three other shots: a bowl of soup, a child in a coffin and a woman laid out on a sofa. When an audience was shown the film, they believed the expression on the man’s face was different each time, looking hungry, grief-stricken and lustful. It was the exact same shot of the man every time. I created a film that uses the same simple trick to expose our own perceptions about race, class and gender in these tumultuous times.

Instead of one expressionless individual, my film has two. The images are first intercut with a white man. Then, in the same order and duration, with a black woman. Finally, the images will be intercut with them side by side. The viewer will inevitably see each object differently depending on the neutral face that comes before it. Every image does heavy lifting to represent the disparities in our society, and most have multiple interpretations. They address police brutality, hunger, death, wealth, quality of life, Trump, COVID and whatever the viewer brings to it.