Paper Cranes

About the Film

“Paper Cranes” is the only film of mine to feature no explicit dialogue, a challenge I encountered when overseeing the scriptwriting process. After concluding a comparative study between Nosferatu (1922) and The Thing (1982), I chose to approach my direction with heightened physicality, leading my actors to push themselves with their body language and movements, reflecting the characters psyche in a new, unfamiliar way. I also paid close attention to the costume and set, obscuring the clown’s face in the second act to represent how lost he is within his own identity. Decisions like these were key to this film, further developing my understanding of film as a visual medium.

Director’s Statement

“Paper Cranes” started from a question of how people perceive violence and isolation, shot in the context of researching 1920s silent films. A large part of my role as director was deciding on the aesthetics of the film, making choices such as handmade title cards to heighten the surreal direction of the project and highlight the offputting story. “Paper Cranes” grapples with a morally ignoble protagonist, not pushing blame towards society or the individual, instead telling the story of a man’s cyclical relationship with violence and his fractured relationship to the people around him. I wanted to allow the audience to meditate with their own perceptions of violence and morality, reflecting on uncomfortable aspects of their own identities.