The incapacity to name is a good symptom of disturbance. – Roland Barthes
Released in 12 monthly installments (September 2023-August 2024), this suite of short films troubles the boundaries between literature and cinema. Good Symptom is curated by M Freeman, Rana San, and myself. We reviewed more than 700 submissions from around the world and solicited work from renowned artists to craft showcases of literary media arts experiments that push the language of poetry, essay, correspondence, autobiography, manifestos, thought pieces, and hybrid literary works off the page and onto the screen.
Subscribers to this series enter a world that disregards genre and disturbs the definitions of literary and media arts with 1-3 short films and accompanying critical essays by project curators and guest writers. Also, keep an eye out for touring Good Symptom showcases in a city near you!
Here’s the opening from the collaboratively written Episode 1 curatorial essay:
And so we begin Good Symptom, a year-long experiment in time-based publishing. Good Symptom coalesces work that disrupts traditional film and literary genres, that transgresses the borders between these forms in idiosyncratic ways. Work that fissures the creative firmament by messing unexpectedly with image, sound and text. Work that stirs up a certain cognitive dissonance. That opens gaps in the imagination and in between things—illuminated spaces of uncertainty, reckoning, wonder. This work savors the nature of time, of writing, of being and belonging. It offers a way out of imposed reality and fucked up thinking. Gathering this insurgent work together, without trying to label it, Good Symptom suggests something in particular is happening in the uncharted region between page and screen—outside the bounds of what we can name. Good Symptom invites us into a liberated realm that calls to radical hearts. We’re glad you’re with us.
Subscribe to this year-long anthology of genre-defying video literature!
PERSONAL
A writer and curator exploring the liminal spaces of the literary arts. I am the author of two chapbooks and have fiction, reviews, and poetry published widely. My interest in how words can be experienced has led to solo work and collaborations to create installations, music performances, broadsides, karaoke, and video poetry. I founded and directed Till, a literary organization that offered an annual writing residency, and am currently co-director of Cadence Video Poetry Festival at Northwest Film Forum.
CV
A writer and curator exploring the liminal spaces of the literary arts. I am the author of two chapbooks and have fiction, reviews, and poetry published widely. My interest in how words can be experienced has led to solo work and collaborations to create installations, music performances, broadsides, karaoke, and video poetry. I founded and directed Till, a literary organization that offered an annual writing residency, and am currently co-director of Cadence Video Poetry Festival at Northwest Film Forum.
CV
PROFESSIONAL
Approaching communications and creative direction with a storyteller’s craft and a poet’s ear. I have more than a decade of experience increasing engagement with meaningful brand experiences through creative approaches. My unique blend of marketing, programming, and writing skills allows me to understand and connect with a wide spectrum of audiences. I have defined and produced end-to-end experiences for artists, businesses, consumers, and stakeholders while growing followings and margins across industries.
Resume
Portfolio
Approaching communications and creative direction with a storyteller’s craft and a poet’s ear. I have more than a decade of experience increasing engagement with meaningful brand experiences through creative approaches. My unique blend of marketing, programming, and writing skills allows me to understand and connect with a wide spectrum of audiences. I have defined and produced end-to-end experiences for artists, businesses, consumers, and stakeholders while growing followings and margins across industries.
Resume
Portfolio