The Warrior and the Empress 2025 |  MiniDV  |  color, sound  |  2026

​​

​Intended to be a personal documentary tour of locations depicted twenty-five years ago in the film Der Krieger und Die Kaiserin (Tom Tykwer, 2000), this premise gives way to scenes of daily life in Wuppertal between Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2025. Recorded with a 2003 Canon Optura Xi on the MiniDV format used by amateur contemporaries of Tykwer's film, including my teenage self.​ In July 2001 I saw the movie on the big screen in Evanston, Illinois. Franka Potente's character falls in love with an ex-soldier after an erotically-charged tracheotomy. I was seventeen and listened to the soundtrack on repeat.  My video begins between the blades of grass on the hill where Franka Potente was pushed to the ground.​
 

​