I spent the entire summer journaling. When I am on the subway I type on my phone, then I transfer the words to a document on my computer. Lately I have been copy editing my journals from the last three years, and doing this has brought me a great sense of calm. I brought with me everywhere two books: Lou Sullivan’s We Both Laughed in Pleasure and James Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name. Their words—and finally seeing Victor Erice’s El Sur (1983) and George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973) some weeks ago, which really affected me—gave me enough courage to start reading my childhood diaries, to think more about old farewells before they’ve completely faded away, to harness language as a means of giving these complex memories an exact shape. Perhaps because I was so busy in the present and intermittently preoccupied with the past, I didn’t realize so many months had passed and that we are already approaching the end of tomato season.
El Sur, Victor Erice, 1983.
One big announcement: I coproduced, acted in, and filmed parts of Isiah Medina’s fourth feature He Thought He Died, which will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The first screening is on September 11 at 5:30 pm, the second screening is on September 13 at 10 pm. He Thought He Died was shot on location in three Canadian cities—Kingston, Toronto, and Montréal—from June 2022 to May 2023. It's a heist film, about a painter (played by Isiah) who stages a heist to steal back his paintings from the museum vault where they are stored. I play a filmmaker who happens to be at the vault on the same day. We’re very proud of it.
We will be present for both screenings and throughout the entirety of the festival. Will you be in town? If so, would you like a ticket? Let me know and I will see what I have available.