Filmmaker Statement

Shame has defined a good portion of my life. Not anxiety or depression, just a feeling that "I am inherently defective." Box on the Hill is an exploration of how shame manifests for an abuser and his victim. These kinds of relationships are often oversimplified. The victim, naive and helpless; and the abuser, a one-dimensional psychopath. This simplification undermines the reality of complex power dynamics and a genuine underlying attraction, either physical, emotional, or both. In the film, the older man is perched in a fortress of solitude, his external success a defense against deeper emptiness. The younger man is consumed by his own trauma. He’s broken and ill-equipped to handle his feelings. In his mind, revenge is the only path, even if it leads to his own destruction. I’ve seen firsthand the power of shame. It’s an emotional cancer that corrodes from the inside. Can we pretend the worst parts of ourselves don’t exist, or do we have the courage to face them?