Filmmaker Statement

PHANTOM VALLEY is a story of a becoming -- a becoming of an artist. I have long been fascinated by the idea that our lives, our sense of who we are and who we are to become are propelled and influenced by forces invisible, mysteriously lurking underneath our conscious self. Whether they originate from our own psyche or spring forth from the collective unconscious, or are the engraved traces of ancestral memory, they draw us closer to a seemingly predetermined path towards the purpose of our existence. Within this dance of interdependent forces, known and unknown, there is a deep reciprocity between what we create and how the very things we create, inevitably create us. In PHANTOM VALLEY I wanted to explore what happens when an artist allows himself to be led by the very work he is compelled to create, delving deep into his own unconscious mind, and letting it create circumstances in which he comes face to face with the very purpose of his life.