Michael Wallin

As apprentice to Bruce Baillie, I count him as primary inspiration, and my first films (MENDOCINO and PHOEBE AND JAN, and the later reworked TALL GRASS) show his influence. Yet my cinematic muses have been many, and include renegades like Kenneth Anger and enigmas like Andy Warhol. My films are experimental, but above all personal, and my wish is for them to both challenge and provide access for anyone to enter and find themselves. They deal in realms spiritual (SLEEPWALK and KALI'S REVUE) and earthly (MONITORING THE UNSTABLE EARTH, FEARFUL SYMMETRY and ALONG THE WAY), the latter a sort of topological triptych. Most recently, and with my second career as a psychotherapist, my focus has turned towards the psychological and sexual, or psycho-sexual. I am interested in exploring my sexuality as a gay man, but I am not a gay filmmaker. I am an artist and a human being! This investigation began over twenty years ago with THE PLACE BETWEEN OUR BODIES and has resurfaced with BLACK SHEEP BOY. These two films look at similar issues (desire, fantasy, the male body, the yearning for connection) but (literally) through very different lenses: one, that of a na?ve, head-over-heels in love 27-year-old, the other, that of a (hopefully) wiser, yet perhaps more cynical, 47-year-old. Between these came my only foray into found footage, DECODINGS, perhaps my most artistically successful film. This film is "autobiographical" as well, and reflects the beginnings of my more mature (hopefully) artistic stance, giving less to the viewer on first inspection but ultimately providing a richer and more moving experience.