Stare is an autobiographical film that I had to make. It wrestles with an interrogation of masculinity in the form of the question, “Am I already that man or will she bring that man out from within me.”

This digital short weaves together two simple montage. One romanticizes the experience of watching an attractive young women walk out of a coffee shop, and the other a re-enactment of the speech my sister’s father gave me before he moved out. The two scenes are tied together by the viewer turning their gaze onto themselves. Their inner workings are represented by the internal mechanisms of a video camera.

It sheds light on how the experience of a thrice-broken home might affect my relationships with young women. It also brings up questions of guilt and blame between the son that listens to the speech and the mother that he, unfortunately, held responsible.