Filmmaker Statement

Hellbender is a personal short for me, and an exercise in cathartic writing. It deals with failure, masculinity and imposter syndrome, things I have struggled with over my lifetime. Initially, this short was about the societal, toxic masculinity that I felt was expected of me, but manifested to be more about failure, especially failure as a creative and a man. The spine of this film runs along the process of it, and overcoming it. Setting oneself up for potential failure, failure as an event, and finally accepting that failure will always be present, and learning to live with it, vulnerable to it somewhat, but also moving above and beyond it.