The Encarne Trilogy, 16min., USA
Directed by SI Reasoning
The Encarne Trilogy is a series of no-budget shorts regarding the creation of my son and his entrance into the physical plane. It won Honorable Mention for Best Experimental Film at the 2025 Paris Around Films International Film Festival (ARFF), Best Arthouse in the Absurd Film Festival Monthly (Milan) July 2025, and Bangkok Society of Film Critics Award for Experimental Film at the Bangkok Movie Awards for July 2025.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

This film originally were three separate shorts telling one story that was created as part of the International

"Echoes of Contemporary Surrealism" Festival in 2024 that was held in Birmingham, Alabama, US - Cairo, Egypt - Saint Cirq LaPopie, France - Budapest, Hungary. In 2023, LaDonna Smith, an incredible surrealist and improvisational musician, told me that I needed to create five-minute shorts for the festival. I had been sitting on this incredible performance by CillaVee and my son from the prior international surrealist festival that I shot back in 2018.

I felt there was a story in the performance but I could not find it. When CillaVee visited in late 2023, we did a few improvised skits in several places including a book store and LaDonna's farm and I was able to find the story with the additional footage and other historical footage I shot in my archives. In 2024, in Saint Cirq Lapopie, the shorts were shown at the summer home of Andre Breton on the 100th Anniversary of his Manifesto of Surrealism.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

The film itself encompasses footage from 2007-2023. I flirted and played with the footage from the 2018 international Surrealist festival for years trying to find the story and getting very frustrated with it. Once I found the story I was able to complete post-production within a few months.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Existential Transitions

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

There were multiple obstacles, but finding the story was probably the greatest.

Although a strong case can be made that a great problem I had in finding the story was that the state of creating effects was way too complicated for many years. However, Resolve had some recent updates that came out that simplified some of the effects I needed to create these films and that allowed me to complete the films in time for the festival.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

I had some wonderful feedback from the international surrealist festivals and some personal showing to small audiences where they had time to think about each of the three sections independently. That helped give me the courage to put the current film out on the cinema circuit. During this time I had a tremendous amount of success in Europe and Asia but I got nothing from the Americas, which is why I applied to this festival, to see if I can find out why. I was very pleased with the results because it showed the various reactions that I had found with my own prior screenings had shown.

The first person was fully enmeshed with the short and the internal process of discovery through the imagery presented. The second person enjoyed viewing it but had no idea what was going on both visually and auditorially, and the third person was still in the initial process of discovery and trying to put the pieces together while reviewing it.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

I was always interested in experimenting with video which began with the first video cameras that were sold in the late 70's. You could see a lot of my playing with the camera when shooting family footage and footage of my first girlfriend, such as finding a color adjustment knob and pushing it to hot pink, as well as very close crops when people were speaking. I then started playing with video feedback and finding way to interact with it such as making the image spin or trail, or making the image dance to music.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

probably Eraserhead by David Lynch. I met my first girlfriend at Eraserhead during the midnight movie scene. I loved how the story was told with few words and with your own mind interpreting the atmosphere and character quirks and personally creating the backstory for what I was experiencing. I also loved the discussions amongst friends as we explored our versions of what we saw.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

I am hoping that I can be part of the public screening in Toronto. In particular, speaking directly with the audience as they process what they have been watching. Possibly, we could show the short as it was originally shown during the Echoes of Contemporary Surrealism festival, as 3 separate shorts, with a pause to discuss each segment before playing the next one.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

I like having one place to put up all of my material for the film and find festivals that I think would appreciate it or provide a service such as the FEEDBACK festival.

10. What is your favorite meal?

I am spoiled as my wife is an excellent vegan chef, so I have lots of favorites. My favorite meal to make is Lebanese Tabouli and vegan Grape Leaves.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

My next project is even more complex than this one. A friend of mine created a filmmaking card game. As I travel the world when showing The Encarne Trilogy, I have been meeting other filmmakers, artists and others (such as people staying in the hostels with me) and play the game with them, where we create a potential film based on the card prompts. I am recording this process and discussions on the potential film and then we decide on a scene from that potential film and have that scene completed in post and sent to me. I will then attempt to create a feature or several shorts utilizing either the completed scene or elements from the scenes. Each segment; playing the game and discussing the potential movie, the scene created by the potential movie, and in some cases the actual movie can create links back to the other segments and potentially open up opportunities to showcase different filmmakers where the success of one segment can ripple into an introduction into other segments....