Filmmaker Statement

As a gay filmmaker, I've felt that as I've grown older, there's increasingly limited space allotted to the type of queer film and art that's always resonated with me the most. Work from people like Todd Haynes, David Wojnarowicz, Gus Van Sant, Dennis Cooper. Queer art that's uninterested in normalizing and universalizing our experiences, that would rather dig around the rough edges that some might find unpalatable. The sexual extremes, the alienation, the double lives, the anger, and the addictions that many of us still live with. I don't believe it's helpful for our art to turn away from the reality of what life is still like for many in the name of assimilation. Annihilator is my attempt at following in the footsteps of those artists and filmmakers that have always inspired me to face the ugly reality of what it means for many to live as a sexual minority in America, and the depths that that can lead you to.