Dark Exhalation (2025) [Upcoming/Unreleased]
35mm, Color and B&W, 45 min, Sound
Email hoganseidel at gmail dot com for screener or print rental.
WRITTEN & COMPOSED BY AMBER VISTEIN
FILM BY HOGAN SEIDEL
Dark Exhalation is a new chamber opera for four vocalists and amplified ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, double bass, percussion) that incorporates techniques from cinematic sound design to transform everyday sounds into dynamic, highly textured musical compositions.
This sci-fi ghost story approaches the opioid epidemic in a poetic, metaphorical way to consider addiction in a new light. The events of the opera play out against the backdrop of a massive solar storm: a billion ton cloud of charged particles and plasma released by the Sun that can wreak havoc on satellites, communication systems, and power grids. Each of the characters confront the storm in their own way.
PLOT SUMMARY
Lavinia has just returned from her wife Helen’s memorial service with an urn containing her ashes. She is troubled by her beloved’s transformation into dust and begins to imagine that Helen’s spirit has instead fused with the Sun—akin to the ancient heroes that became constellations. But in the days that follow the Sun begins to behave in an increasingly erratic and hazardous manner; prompting Lavinia to reflect on Helen’s life and her slow descent into addiction.
Meanwhile, Wendell only moved to the City from the Gulf Coast of Florida a few months ago. His Uncle Henry got him a job as a handyman and free rent. He’s always loved fixing things. Almost as much as he loves sailboats and shorebirds. When, in response to elevated solar activity, the birds in his neighborhood become disoriented and begin crashing into buildings at an alarming rate Wendell is profoundly affected. He manages to save just one—a house sparrow. He names him Ori—short for Orpheus—and the two swiftly become inseparable.
A few days later NASA confirms that the unusual solar activity—sunspots gathering like clouds and a series of solar flares—has generated a massive solar storm that is presently hurtling towards Earth. The residents of The City confront impending catastrophe: massive power outages, communication blackout, scarcity, and cold. As well as the choice of whether to evacuate or ride out the storm.
Unearthly auroras illuminate the night sky in a wild array of colors: yellow-green, fluorescent blue, and blood red. As the storm draws closer, Lavinia and Wendell both contemplate whether staying in town was the correct choice. With the storm’s arrival they become isolated by a communication blackout and unsafe conditions. But the storm’s arrival also brings unexpected connections that illuminate the generative possibilities of fragility, the depths of kindness, and new ways forward.
Sorrow Halved #3: Falling Together / Falling Apart (2024) [Upcoming/Unreleased]
35mm, Color, 5 min, Sound
Email hoganseidel at gmail dot com for screener or print rental.
In 2019, Hogan Seidel and Gabby Sumney decided to tackle a yearly collaboration called Sorrow Halved–from the German idiom “Geteilte Freude ist doppelte Freude, geteilter Schmerz ist halber Schmerz.” or “A joy shared, is a joy doubled. A sorrow shared, is a sorrow halved.” The two queer artists took a shine to the idiom as they considered ways to subvert traditional notions of authorship and the experimental canon in their practice and their teaching.
The “sorrow” of singular creative genius that is often hailed in the experimental world felt counter to the lessons they were bringing to their students and to their approach to making queer art.
For one year, Gabby and Hogan took the same strip of 35mm clear leader and passed it back and forth every month. There were no restrictions on how to interact with the strip or limitations on materials. The artists were simply responding to each other through gestures.
This is the 3rd film birthed out of this practice's iteration.
Konstantin (2023)
16mm, b&w, 3 min, Sound
Email hoganseidel at gmail dot com for screener or print rental.
Konstantin is an experimental film shot on high-contrast black and white 16mm film using a single 100ft reel. The film is an in-camera edit with triple exposures, creating a layered and complex visual language. Through this aesthetic, the piece explores themes of queer love and queer ecology. It invites the viewer to enter a unique and poetic world, where the boundaries between the human and natural realms blur and merge. Pushing against human exceptionalism & into a world where there is no ‘natural’ or ‘unnatural.’
Can a walk in the forest, a kiss between lovers, a roll of film, the touch lichen, liberate ourselves from these hierarchies?
Sorrow Halved #2: Oscillating Sporadically (2023) [Upcoming/Unreleased]
35mm, Color and B&W, 2 Channel, 5min, Sound
Email hoganseidel at gmail dot com for screener or print rental.
In 2019, Hogan Seidel and Gabby Sumney decided to tackle a yearly collaboration called Sorrow Halved–from the German idiom “Geteilte Freude ist doppelte Freude, geteilter Schmerz ist halber Schmerz.” or “A joy shared, is a joy doubled. A sorrow shared, is a sorrow halved.” The two queer artists took a shine to the idiom as they considered ways to subvert traditional notions of authorship and the experimental canon in their practice and their teaching.
The “sorrow” of singular creative genius that is often hailed in the experimental world felt counter to the lessons they were bringing to their students and to their approach to making queer art.
For one year, Gabby and Hogan took the same strip of 35mm clear leader and passed it back and forth every month. There were no restrictions on how to interact with the strip or limitations on materials. The artists were simply responding to each other through gestures.
This is the second film born out of this practice's iteration. Because of the sculptural nature of the work, the film could not be reproduced using an optical printer; instead, it was made on a flatbed photoscanner.
This film began being painted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the artists both moved away from Boston shortly after. The film was split during their departure, as well as their collaborative practice was moved to virtual spaces. The split display is a reflection of working together, while still remaining apart. This two-channel film is accompanied by audio notes sent to each other over the phone. The work reflects the current ruminations of two artists tied together as they deal with love, jobs, and joy gained/lost. Their minds wander to possible futures.
Genital Reveal Party (2022)
16mm, Color, 7 min, Sound
Email hoganseidel at gmail dot com for screener or print rental.
An exploration of gender binarism, violence, climate disaster, and the second coming of Christ. A 3D spectacle for the whole family!
Through found footage, text, and photochemical abstraction, this film begins to draw connections between many oppressive structures that are linked to gender essentialism.
