I returned to my hometown, a place I had long since abandoned, to live for several months with my family for the first time since my teenage years. I went with the intention of making a film that would capture the stillness of mid-night and how our movement through this stillness could form a cultural transgression. The film was shot by a crew of two, with its initial narrative elements born out of only a few resonant images and sounds. HAPPER’S COMET explores a sense of alienation that is deeply integrated in the fabric of my home community. It is my most direct attempt at an “ecosystem film”—a form that has always compelled me—whereby a mosaic takes shape through a cumulative collection of faces, landscapes, and objects. I’m fascinated by the ways in which sparse and abstract elements can produce a functional narrative. After having explored this oblique approach to storytelling with HAPPER'S COMET, I’d like to try a completely non-narrative film constructed in a similar mosaic-inspired strategy.
Tyler Taormina
