2026, 32nd Annual Awards - Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

Movie | Buried Treasure | Director | Best Performance in a Leading Role |

Best Performance in a Supporting Role |Best Breakout Performance |

Original Screenplay | Adapted Screenplay | Music in a Film | Sound Design |

Editing | Cinematography | Production Design | Ensemble Cast | Documentary

Best Movie
It Was Just an Accident – There aren’t many films that can pull off the terror of being held captive and tortured, both psychologically and physically with sometime near-slapstick humor, but master director Jafar Panahi does just that with his latest film, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT. When a man with a prosthetic leg arrives at a garage with his family seeking the repair of his car, mechanic Vahid recognizes the squeaking sound of that leg and is chilled. It’s a sound he remember after being held captive in an Iranian prison. The next day he finds the man and kidnaps him intending to kill him for the torture, but doubt creeps in as he never saw the man’s face — only heard the sound. He rounds up other former prisoners to determine this man’s fate, and the various twists and turns and viewpoints reveals make for a moralistic yet ultimately humanist story that is both chilling and powerful –mrc

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl –

The Secret Agent – Mostly set in his coastal home town of Recife, Brazil, filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho draws from some the best parts of previous features AQUARIUS and BACURAU (along with his great companion doc PICTURES OF GHOSTS) and alchemizes them into a period thriller in love with genre films (among them, epics, humanist dramas, absurdist comedies and grade-Z horror flicks!) and also life itself. With a diverse ensemble headed by Wagner Moura, a slippery, zig-zagging narrative and an expertly curated soundtrack, although set in 1977, THE SECRET AGENT harmonizes with the here and now to a prescient degree. –ck

Sorry, Baby –

*Train Dreams* –

Universal Language – The three seemingly unrelated stories in this film revolve around a fictional city which is a mashup of the abysmally drab Winnepeg and the delightfully colorful Tehran. One story follows two grade school sisters, wandering the streets of the city, to find a way to retrieve money trapped under the ice in order to help a classmate. Another story is about a tour guide Massoud who tries to make the most mundane sites of Winnepeg appear interesting to the groups of ever increasingly befuddled tourists he’s tasked to lead. The last story is about a disgruntled office worker living in Quebec (played by the director/writer Matthew Rankin) who quits his job to go visit his long estranged sick mother in Winnepeg. Intermixed in all of this are many oddities including turkeys galore, an unusually mesmerizing butcher shop, a Tim Horton’s that serves tea out of samovars alongside donuts, a bingo parlor that gives out Kleenex as prizes and a woman who collects her own tears. The production design throughout these scenes was amazing in detail and color or lack thereof. Some might say that this puzzle had all the pieces just thrown on the floor at the end. Others may see a fit. The story is told in a unique, asynchronous way that really sticks with the viewer who will be trying to make sense of it all long after the film has ended. The film was shot on 16mm film giving it a grainy vintage feel. Rankin’s obsession with rectilinear images and use of linear camera movements was clear. Additionally this was contrasted by extended meandering takes, featuring long pans and sweeping zooms. This film checks most all boxes including stellar cinematography, production design, original screenplay, directing and acting, with oh so endearing performances by a few of the kids and a fantastic break out performance by Rojina Esmaeili who plays Negin, the young driven school girl attempting to help her classmate. –jb

Buried Treasure

Dead Mail – DEAD MAIL is hard to categorize. It’s not really a horror movie as one might think, but rather a clever dark funny mystery / thriller taking place in a nondescript Midwestern town. Filmed to give a lo-fi 1980’s retro aesthetic, it comes off at first glance like a scary VHS one might find in the attic. Hats off to Filmmakers Kyle McConaghy and Joe DeBoer who achieved this look utilizing a digital-to-analog process to achieve this highly textured work of genius. The story is told using a unique, nonlinear narrative structure that works well. The film starts with a man Josh (Sterling Macer Jr.) bound and gagged, crawling out to shove a bloodied letter into a mailbox while his captor Trent (John Fleck) is in pursuit. It then shifts in time to postal workers Ann (Micki Jackson) and Bess (Susan Priver) finding Josh’s letter in their dead mail pile and wanting to investigate. They bring it to their boss Jasper(Tomas Boykin) who’s the head dead letter inspector. Jasper is so cool, clever and likable, one hopes a future series will be based on this guy. Interactions with his colleagues and secret cohort are surprising and amusing. On a human psyche level, the story connects Josh, Trent and Jasper in depicting the loneliness each one feels, for vastly different reasons. Production / costume design could not have been any better in replicating the 80’s era and Midwestern feel. Filmed in only 6 weeks, on an “ultra-low” budget, the filmmakers performed many tasks themselves, such as spray-painting the wallpaper in McConaghy’s own apartment bathroom for a scene. Many scenes were pieced together from multiple locations; for example, the main house in the film was created using six different locations, including two or three separate exteriors and four interiors. While mainly shot in LA the filmmakers do an excellent job in recreating the a nondescript Midwestern town where the story takes place. –jb

Jazzy –

Julie Keeps Quiet – Leonardo Van Dijl’s debut narrative is an intense, highly internal film about a young woman on the verge of becoming a star, professional tennis player who finds herself in the position of being involved in the dismissal of her coach after a fellow tennis player being trained by that same coach commits suicide. There is a temptation for people watching this film to become frustrated about why Julie is in fact, keeping quiet, yet that is the entire point. The reality is the entire film follows Julie’s agonizing thought-process on whether or not to keep quiet. It’s fascinating features an absolutely incredible debut performance by tennis player Tessa Van den Broeck who captures both the internal conflict and the outward athleticism of the main character. And the sound design… wow! Those tennis balls, and feet scuffing the court. Intenxe. –mrc

*Peacock* –

The Queen of My Dreams –

We Strangers –

Best Director
Mary Bronstein for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – Mary Bronstein does a fantastic job directing IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU. She also wrote the original screenplay. The story is about a mother, Linda,(played by Rose Byrne), whose world comes crashing around her while dealing with a daughter with a mysterious illness. Bronstein made the brilliant choice to present the daughter as a disembodied voice. The same choice was made for Linda’s husband who we only hear on the phone. Another clever choice was for Conan O’Brien (who played Linda’s therapist) to be exceedingly cold and unfeeling. Conan is someone the viewer expects will add levity or at least be an empathetic character. Bronstein directed him to be painfully cold. The viewer wishes more warmth and empathy from him, much like Linda desires. Bronstein ratchets up the tension and allows you to feel Linda’s pain through several devices, real, imagined and symbolic. One such means is that at night, when she needs a quick break, Linda is tethered to a crackling staticky baby monitor emitting the constant beeping of the machinery her daughter needs. These constant mechanical sounds are unnerving and pulls us into Linda’s world. The fact that Bronstein had a daughter with a similar illness and went through some similar events lends to the director’s ability to truly put the viewer in Linda’s place. By the end you’ll be on the edge of your seat, feeling very much what Linda feels thanks in large part due to Bronstein’s directorial choices, (in addition to Rose Byrne’s powerful and authentic performance). –jb

Mona Fastvold for The Testament of Annn Lee – In THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE, director Mona Fastvold transcends the traditional biopic to create a luminous love letter to cinema itself. Through bold visual language, she turns the story of Ann Lee into the film’s own kind of “Protestantism,” breaking with cinematic convention in ways that mirror her subject’s radical spirit. Fastvold’s outside-the-box approach transforms history into living art, using form as doctrine and style as revelation. The result is a film that feels both reverent and revolutionary. –br

Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident –

Matthew Rankin for Universal Language – “What if Canada and in particular, that unloved inland metropolis of Winnipeg was colonized by Iran?” is the jumping-off point for writer/director/actor Rankin’s second feature, a considerable advance over his first, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (2021 Chlotrudis nominee for Production Design and Editing) while barely resembling it. A deadpan mashup of quirks learned from both Iranian cinema (Abbas Kiarostami in particular) and fellow Winnipegian Guy Maddin, it manages to be hilarious and unique but also unexpectedly moving, creating an outrageous mirror world from scratch and unspooling a narrative that concludes with the wisdom and epiphany of, well, a Kiarostami film. — ck

Kelly Reichardt for The Mastermind – You can’t call The Mastermind an art heist film, although it is very much that, unless you qualify it as a Kelly Reichardt art-heist film. Reichardt is less interested in the thrills and suspense of an art-heist, as she is in the psychology of the man behind the crime. Even more, Reichardt paints the portrait of life in 1970 with protests against the Viet Nam Was and other political challenges percolating in the background throughout the film. The director paints crafts a funny and sad portrait of what straight, cis, white male privilege looks like, all while Josh O’Connor’s protagnist, James Mooney moves through life, and across the country oblivious to the larger world around him, from his wife and family, to the political strife that appears in the background through the film. The film is leisurely paced, yet hits hard when making a point Reichardt coaxes an oblivious, nearly tragic performance from O’Connor and recreates an accurate 1970’s Framingham, MA even though it was shot in Ohio. –mrc
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Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value –

Best Performance in a Lead Role
Tom Blyth for the role of Lucas in Plainclothes – Probably best known for his role in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Tom Blyth surprises everyone by his tortured, nuanced performance as Lucas, a police officer working undercover in the mid-90’s, Syracuse shopping mall, meeting up with men in the restroom with the promise of sex, only to have them arrested for indecent exposure. Lucas is tortured because he is learning that he is gay, and when he encounter a potential victim of his operation with whom he finds himself intensely attracted, his anxiety and guilt skyrtocket, bleeding into all aspects of his life, even as he tries to pursue a relationship with the equally complex Andrew. The sincerity with which Blyth portrays Lucas is both moving and tension-building, as he tries to manage his secret at a New Year’s party at his mom’s where he worries he is on the verge of being discovered. Also beautifully acted is the intense desire and discovery of that first sexual encounter that wraps up his stunted emotional core and drives him to potentially devastating decisions. It’s a bravura performance for its intensity, yet haunting for it’s quiet internality. –mrc

Rose Byrne for the role of Linda in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You –

Kathleen Chalfant for the role of Ruth in Familliar Touch – FAMILIAR TOUCH’s Kathleen Chalfant delivers a performance of extraordinary grace, illuminating a heavy subject with warmth, dignity, and quiet strength. Through even the smallest gestures, she delivers a yearning for freedom that feels both fragile and fierce at the same time amid overwhelming sets of environmental and mental constraints. Chalfant transforms the entirety of the role into an emotional imprint of resilience and humanity. –br

Wagner Moura for the role of Marcelo Alves / Armando Solimões / Fernando Solimões in The Secret Agent –

Fernanda Torres for the role of

Best Performance in a Supporting Role
Naomi Ackie for the role of Lydie in Sorry, Baby –

Nina Hoss for the role of Eileen Lovborg in Hedda – German actress Nina Hoss dominates almost every scene in which she appears in Nia DaCosta’s HEDDA, playing Eileen Lovborg, the gender-flipped love-interest in this adaptation of Hedda Gabler. Hoss brings a calculated mixture of both brazen confidence, in her knowledge she that is the smartest person in every room, and shattering insecurity, especially when she dramatically tumbles off the wagon. Yet even at her drunken worst, in a set-up meant to destroy her self-esteem, she manages to enthrall and outthink every man in the room. Her bold, bravura presence is a great match for her leading lady, played to perfection by Tessa Thompson. The pair of actors tear up the screen making HEDDA a gorgeous, bombastic spectacle you can’t tear your eyes away from. –mrc

John Leguizamo for the role of Bob Trevino in Bob Trevino Likes It – A 30+ year veteran of stage and screen, John Leguizamo’s dependable presence proves a perfect fit for the titular character—or at least one of them as multiple Bob Trevinos figure into this tale of a young woman finding a surrogate father in a stranger who shares her own problematic father’s name. Leguizamo steps into the role of the former with such ease while also appearing fully aware of both the weirdness and potential the situation presents. The desire to connect and support each other emerges as one both this Trevino and Leguizamo seem to totally understand. –ck

John Carroll Lynch for the role of Pete in Sorry, Baby –

William H. Macy for the role of Arn Peeples in Train Dreams –

Best Breakout Performance
Everett Blunck for the role of Griffin in Griffin in Summer and Ben in The Plague –

Susan Chardy for the role of Shula in On Becoming a Guinea Fowl –

Abou Sangare for the role of Souleymane Sangaré in Souleymane’s Story –

Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux for the role of Jazzy in Jazzy – A vibrant personality that draws the audience in is the foundation for Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux’s breakthrough performance in JAZZY. With a magnetic charm and emotional honesty, Shangreaux lays bare the visible struggles and uncertainties of adolescence with undeniable authenticity. Fidgeting about inside of a disarming naturalist setting, she captures the turbulence of growing up in moments that feel both intimate and universal. The result is a performance that is a captivating portrait of youth in transition, filled with heart and a genuine presence. –br

Nina Ye for the role of I-Jing in Left-Handed Girl –

Tabatha Zimiga for the role of Tabatha Zimiga in East of Wall – Whether it’s instinctual talent, or just a natural affinity for conveying complex emotions with a look, Tabatha Zimiga’s debut performance, playing a slightly fictionalized version of herself, packs a dramatic wallop. For such a powerful character, Tabatha is surprisingly inwardly focused, keeping most of her emotions bottled up, yet playing with clarity over her face, beautifully shot by cinematographer Austin Shelton. It’s a tough role, even for someone who lived it, to capture the nuance, and administer restraint when histrionics would be so tempting. Zimiga captivates from her very first scene, and she doesn’t let up for the entire film. Talk about a brave performance, and a deft one as well. –mrc

Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast
*It Was Just an Accident* –

Left-Handed Girl –

*A Nice Indian Boy* – Roshan Sethi’s twist on the romantic comedy would not work without the precise casting of its leads: Karan Soni as a neurotic Indian-American doctor looking to bring the film’s titular conceit home to meet his family and Jonathan Groff, the white man he ends up falling for. However, the rest of the cast, from members of Soni’s immediate family (father Harish Patel, mother Zarna Garg, older sister Sunita Mani) to his co-worker Paul (Peter S. Kim) are all deeply drawn and lovingly portrayed, coming off as multi-dimensional and lived-in—a strong ensemble in what proves to be a very nice movie. –ck

*Nouvelle Vague* –

*The Testament of Ann Lee* –

*Universal Language* –

Best Original Screenplay
*The Assessment, screenplay by Nell Garfath Cox, Dave Thomas, and John Donnelly* –

*Next Sohee, screenplay by July Jung* –

*Sorry. Baby, screenplay by Eva Victor* –

*Twinless, screenplay by James Sweeney* – James Sweeney’s latest feature vindicates the promise of his debut, STRAIGHT UP, taking a fairly outlandish premise (two men transgressively bond over a shared relationship with one man’s recently deceased twin) and making a meal out of it. Dylan O’Brien and Aisling Franciosi are both great (especially the former in a dual role) but it’s director/screenwriter/co-star Sweeney’s unique voice—caustic and catty, but deceptively vulnerable in how it considers the defenses one puts up in any kind of relationship that powers this messy, yearning, accomplished character study. –ck

Universal Language, screenplay by Ila Firouzabadi, Pirouz Nemati, Matthew Rankin –

Best Adapted Screenplay
*Hedda, screenplay by screenplay by Nia DaCosta*, based on the play by Henrik Ibsen –


*No Other Choice, screenplay by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar* and Jahye Lee, based on the novel by Donald E. Westlake –

*Nouvelle Vague, screenplay by Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo Jr., Michèle Pétin, Laetitia Masson* – The screenplay of NOUVELLE VAGUE is cinematic poetry, weaving elliptical dialogue with layered reflections on identity and reinvention. The fragmented structure of the film and playful self-awareness invite audiences to actively participate in culling meaning and joining already established acquaintances where they are in their conversations, turning narrative into an act of discovery. With sharp philosophical undertones and a rhythm that feels both spontaneous and meticulously composed, the writing challenges convention while remaining deeply evocative. What results is a script that embodies the spirit of the new wave it invokes—restless, daring, and endlessly thought-provoking. –br

*Sharp Corner, screenplay by Jason Buxton, based on the short story by Russell Wangersky – Jason Buxton’s SHARP CORNER* is a controlled study in tension, transforming an ordinary domestic setting into a site of creeping psychological uneasy. A single moment with sparse dialogue and mounting silence transforms that particular scene into a fault line for deepening tension and moral ambiguity. Following bouts of sharp-written dialogue, the script then crafts scenes that escalate with quiet precision, allowing dread to build in the spaces between words. Unlike many thrillers that focus on monumental events, SHARP CORNER stands apart for its ability to mine profound suspense from everyday fears. –br

*Clint Bentley and Greg KwedarTrain Dreams, screenplay by Clint Bentley* and Greg Kwedar, based on the novella by Denis Johnson –

Best Use of Music in a Film
The Ballad of Wallis Island, Gary Welh, Music Superivsor – Fractured musical duo McGwyer (Tim Basden) and Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) find themselves reunited on the remote isle of this film’s title thanks to widower Charles (a terrific Tim Key) who has invited them there to perform a concert. With a screenplay by Basden and Key, it’s a quirky comedy with a melancholic turn fortified by the stellar folk-rock compositions Basden wrote himself and performs with Mulligan. These songs give the film an authenticity, particularly as we see what profound effect they continue to have for Charles and also their creators. –ck

*The History of Sound, Lucy Bright*, Music Supervisor –

Pavements, Keegan DeWitt and Dabney Morris, Composers –

*The Testament of Ann Lee, Daniel Blumberg*, Composer –

*Train Dreams* Bryce Dressner, Music-

Best Sound Design
Deaf President Now!, Samir Foco, Sound Designer –

*Eephus, Michael Basta, Carson Lund, Sound Designers – Nearly NO EXIT transferred to a small town baseball field (or perhaps a middle-aged DAZED AND CONFUSED.) Carson Lund, a cinematographer on such recent American indies as HAM ON RYE aims for a Robert Altman-esque diorama of an ultra-specific milieu with his directorial debut and attains much of it through its sound design: intersecting conversations (often already in progress) on and off the diamond, snippets of radio commercials, even venerable documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s (RIP) brief narration at the beginning of each chapter, all of it coalescing into something as causal and random as passing time over an endless day. –ck*

Oceans Are the Real Continents, Tommaso Barbaro, Sound Designer –

*Souleymane’s Story, Pierre Bariaud, Marc-Olivier Brullé, Charlotte Butrak, Sound Editors – Much of Souleymane’s Story* takes place on the hectic streets of Paris, while our title character hustles between his food delivery job on bicycle, to various modes of public transportation as he works and an immigrant seeking asylum, to follow the protocols that will allow him to stay in France. The sound design of the streets of Paris immerse the film into a buzzing, non-stop sense of movement as traffic, street conversations, the whir of the bicycle, and general city chaos. The stark change for the final twenty minutes that take place in an office cubicle with an intense, two-person conversation is jolting and powerful. –mrc

The Testament of Ann Lee, Andy Neil, Sound Designer – The sound design of THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE is a transcendent achievement, transforming silence, breath, and song into a spiritual force. Although layered choral textures are an obvious contributor to the effective sound design, the design team relishes in stark environmental sounds and moments of near-quiet reverence to create an aural landscape that feels both intimate and divine. Each creak of wood along with the more overt swell of collective voices deepens the emotional resonance, immersing audiences in a world shaped as much by devotion as by doubt. As Ann Lee looks to an unseen presence, the sound design bolsters that spine-tingling effect of an unseen presence: a revelation for the ears amid a band of believers seeking spiritual revelations. –br

Train Dreams, Lee Salevan, Supervising Sound Editor –

Best Editing
*Yang Chao, Matthieu Laclau, Xudong Lin, Caught by the Tides* – CAUGHT BY THE TIDES showcases editing of astonishing precision and emotional intelligence. Every cut feels alive, pulsing with the rhythm of memory, loss, and the unstoppable flow of time. The editors sculpt the film’s shifting landscapes and decades-spanning narrative into a seamless, hypnotic experience, guiding viewers through intimate moments and sweeping historical change with effortless grace by weaving together unused footage from the director’s previous films, or even scenes from those films directly, as well as newly shot scenes.. Scenes dissolve into one another like fragments of a dream, yet the storytelling remains sharply coherent and deeply affecting. Silence is used with as much power as motion, creating pockets of reflection that intensify the film’s emotional weight. The interplay of archival textures, contemporary footage, and the protagonists’ journey is handled with rare artistry, making the edit not just a technical achievement but the film’s beating heart. It’s a masterclass in cinematic rhythm—bold, fluid, immersive—and a breathtaking reminder of how transformative great editing can be.

Henry Hayes, Simon Njoo, The Plague –

Bi Gan, Resurrection –

Sofía Subercaseaux, The Testament of Ann Lee –

Parker Laramie, Train Dreams –

Xi Feng, Universal Language –

Best Cinematography
*Lorenzo Casadio, Oceans Are the Real Continents* –**

Jingsong Dong, Resurrection –

Norm Li, Blue Sun Palace

William Rexer, The Testament of Ann Lee –

*Adolpho Veloso*, Train Dreams –

Isabelle Stachtchenko, Universal Language –

Best Production Design
Sam Bader, The Testament of Ann Lee –

*Cara Brower, Hedda* –

*Anthony Gasparro, The Mastermind* – Nominated last year for Kinds of Kindness.

*Jan Houllevigue, The Assessment* –

*Qiang Liu, Resurrection* – Crafting an ode to cinema by traversing the entire 20^th Century through five different genre-specific segments, Bi Gan’s sci-fi epic kicks off with a startling facsimile of a silent film so intricately detailed that it feels more like a brand new experience than any sort of retread. RESURRECTION then moves through other just as heavily-stylized worlds (a wintry noir, a spare meditation involving Buddhist monks, a con artist mentoring a youthful assistant) before climaxing with something resembling a hallucinatory Y2K epic Wong Kar-wai never got around to making (in one extended, unbroken shot, no less.) –ck

*Louisa SchabasL Universal Language* –**

Best Documentary
*Come See Me in the Good Light* – Poet/activist Andrea Gibson’s ovarian cancer diagnosis in their late 40s provides the premise for filmmaker Ryan White following them and their partner, Megan Falley, mostly in and around their cozy Colorado home. Laugh-out-loud conversations about such not-profound activities as fingering and obscure word choices are given the same weight as the specter of death that can’t help but color everything. Still, such intimacy and candidness endear Andrea and Megan to us considerably. This is life not as a series of big moments but as something given inspiration and meaning by all the random, casual ones that naturally occur in the act of simply living. –ck

*Deaf President Now!* –

*No Other Land* –

*The Perfect Neighbor* – THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR grips audiences by peeling back the façade of suburbia to reveal a story that is raw and unsettling. The documentary uses patient storytelling and a keen investigative eye to build tension through layered perspectives and carefully curated detail. It balances empathy with accountability, allowing complexity to unfold without sensationalism. Remarkably, it achieves this with striking transparency—eschewing extraneous commentary or editorializing in favor of allowing the facts and voices to speak for themselves. Out of that comes a powerful, thought-provoking work that redefines what it means to truly know the people next door. –br

*Porcelain War* – Whenever I see a film documenting communities at war, particularly the films about the Ukraine invasion in the past couple of years, I am continually stunned that there hasn’t been a resolution yet. Watching these films and seeing what everyday people just trying to live their lives, or in the case of Porcelain War, create art, have to contend with it’s simply mind-boggling. This doc follow a married pair of artists, who find themselves embroiled in a war — actual combat — along side teachers, lawyers, computer techs and the regular folks in their community. Porcelain War does a remarkable job showing how people are somehow able to balance art and some semblance or a home life with the ongoing struggle of war. It’s heart-rending and infuriating that we have been dealing with this for several years. — mrc

Secret Mall Apartment – This documentary attracts its audience based upon the premise of a secret mall apartment, built by Michael Townsend and his artist cohorts, as an act of protest against gentrification. The film then directs the audience away from that endeavor, towards other more meaningful and impactful public artworks that intersect with the larger ideas of the secret mall apartment. Townsend, who was the genius behind the apartment and the other art projects in the film, was approached by over 30 directors after the story broke in 2007. It was not till 2019 after fortuitously meeting director Jeremy Workman in Greece while filming Lily Topples the world, that Townsend felt like he had finally found a director who could tell the story properly. Much of the original footage of the apartment was filmed with inexpensive Pentax Optio cameras the group purchased at the mall’s Radio Shack. Workman utilized that footage along with other historical and newly created footage to tell the amazing stories of Michael and the group of artists he worked with to create surprisingly meaningful yet (sadly?) ephemeral art. The film gets the viewer to ponder the question: What is art? There are a few big laughs along the way and a lot of heart as well. I was in awe of so much that Michael and his cohorts created. –jb