LEMNISCATE, 20min., USA, Sci-Fi/Family
Directed by Chuck Meré
When a scientist has his biggest technological breakthrough at the same time of his young daughter's scheduled visitation, he must choose between being a good father, or traveling to a parallel dimension.

Director Statement
I decided to write and direct Lemniscate in an attempt to cope with the following truths about myself:

1. I am career obsessed.

2. I constantly strive to be a better father.

3. In many ways I am my own worst enemy.

4. Losing my daughter is my absolute biggest fear.

5. I am enamored by the concept of infinity.

The list above creates an incredible amount of emotional conflict, especially number one and two in conjunction. Finding a balance between career and fatherhood is not easy.

To this end, I wanted the viewer to experience the downward spiral of someone who lives all of those things in an ultra-literal way, leading to his self-created demise and inevitable morphing into his own villain as an infinite loop emerges.

I think the most compelling technical component of this project, and my personal favorite was invisibly changing the aspect ratio as the audience views the world from a new more claustrophobic dimension.

Lastly, this film began preproduction a month before the pandemic and finished postproduction at around the time people stopped wearing masks, so I think it’s also really interesting how it fully incapsulates an entire historical time period.