This is a Covid-Era film. Among many things, it was the unprecedented amount of teens who succumbed to suicide in 2020, and the part social media played in shaping the narrative surrounding them that moved me to make it. THE REST IS SILENCE is the product of two years of painstaking, impassioned collaboration.
Thematically, I wanted to capture the gritty rawness and isolation of selfie-mode filming. The “youtube element”, to me, brings a sense of separation, invasion, and loss of control. To heighten this feeling it was imperative to add system error and deterioration. For this, I was heavily inspired by the early pop-art movement. To accomplish this, Brandon guided the camera ensuring each visual moment landed organically, Johnny meticulously doctored and designed all the wild “youtube elements”, and James mastered the audio, tying everything together with what I consider a hollow ambience. THE REST IS SILENCE is weird, experimental, inventive, beautiful, and flawed. We sincerely hope our film will widen the discourse surrounding mental health.
director's notebook
