Films

MALORUM

In a secluded clearing where time stands still, Malorum has accepted his eternal punishment of pulling a heavy rope. Malorum's existence shifts when a captivating woman emerges from the brush clinging to the same rope that binds him, igniting waves of love, loss, hope and despair.

Malorum was a story I felt compelled to tell, and I was fortunate that my team of three fellow students at Sacramento State shared that enthusiasm and chose it as one of our first films together. Seeing this simple idea come to life on screen exactly as I imagined remains one of the most rewarding experiences of my filmmaking journey.

The film was inspired by two unlikely things: The Myth of Sisyphus and an old tug-of-war rope hanging in my shed. From those beginnings grew a minimalist fable about endurance, with one unexpected ingredient at its center—the fleeting possibility of human connection. That brief glimpse of love becomes the emotional counterweight to an otherwise endless existence.

What interests me most is not why Malorum was condemned by the gods. His crime is irrelevant. Instead, I'm drawn to watching someone navigate contentment, hope, joy, longing, and despair while trapped inside a system completely beyond his control. Like a pawn on a cosmic hamster wheel, he struggles not against his labor, but against the emotional consequences of believing that life might hold something more.

Since its completion, Malorum has been recognized by 19 film festivals across Sweden, Greece, Italy, Portugal, England, Canada, and the United States. More importantly, it established the creative standard I continue to hold myself to with every project that follows. I hope audiences see in Malorum's journey a reflection of our own search for meaning—even when the answers remain forever out of reach.

THE PEDDLER

A self-reliant merchant traveling remote hill country boards a boat with a silent, masked ferryman to cross an enormous lake. What begins as an uneasy passage slowly curdles into paranoia and violence — until the peddler is left to reckon with the true nature of fate, luck, and the ancient danger of taking matters into your own hands.

This is the film I have always needed to make. The Peddler was my first project — a vision so personal and strange that it could only come from the interior of one's own dreams. Ambitious, folkloric, and unlike anything I had seen before, I knew it would take time to find its way to the screen.
With the generous help of so many dear friends, that time has finally come.
The peddler's world — the remote hills, the vast lake, the silent masked figure at the oars — lives in a space somewhere between fable and nightmare. I wanted to explore what we tell ourselves about luck and self-reliance, and what it costs us when we trust only our own hands.
Those who have followed my work may know Malorum, which has since gone on to win awards at festivals around the world. But this is where it all began. I am proud, at last, to share it.

BREATHING DEEPLY

The Meaningful Life of Shari Lowen

A woman overcomes cancer to not only start rowing again, but launches a team for other cancer survivors.

Breathing Deeply: The Meaningful Life of Shari Lowen is my first completed film. It was one of three films selected from the Intermediate level classes to screen at the J Street Film Festival.

When our class was given the assignment to choose a person to build a documentary around, I thought of Shari immediately. I was relieved when my team agreed without hesitation.

Still, taking it on was frightening. Shari is soft-spoken, and I worried that quality might not translate to something exciting enough to carry a film. But her actions spoke louder than volume ever could. After cancer, rowing helped her push through — she fought to get back into the boat. And she didn't stop there. She went on to build a team for others facing the same fight, and went on to become a national leader for the cause.

My hope is that this film does justice to Shari's life, and that it inspires those facing cancer to find strength in her story — and, if they're looking for it, a team ready to welcome them.

SINGLE DISTANCE

At 39, a competitive rower underestimated by her coach and  team, and unfulfilled at work, quits her job and sets out to row 73 miles alone from Sacramento to Stockton — a goal nearly  derailed by sudden illness, and only reached with her friends  rallying behind her.

When I set out to make Single Distance, I thought of it as Karen's version of rowing across an ocean. It didn't take months, and it didn't cross a sea — but for her, 73 miles alone down the Sacramento River, far exceeded anything she'd ever attempted, and frankly, more than most people will ever take on.

What struck me most, watching her train and then watching her actually do it, was how little she hesitated. When the idea was first put in front of her, she didn't need convincing. She said yes and then she immediately set to work — quietly, with a limited number of weeks to prepare, with no guarantee it would go smoothly, and it didn't always. She got sick the night before her first attempt. She regrouped, and a week later she made it happen.

Out on the water, she rowed like a champion. Stroke after stroke, mile after mile, she held a pace that surprised even the people who know her best. I have no doubt that if the opportunity to row across an actual ocean ever came her way, she'd take it, and she'd finish.

I think you learn a lot about who someone really is when they push themselves that far past what's comfortable. Karen is one of the most quietly determined, genuinely inspiring people I've had the privilege to point a camera at, and this film is my attempt to show why.