The bird of paradise
Director / Writer / Screenplay by
A colorful exploration into a lost girl’s journey to self-acceptance.
“The Bird of Paradise” is a narrative short film that I wrote and directed as a part of my Narrative Senior Capstone project at the University of Denver. My goal as the leader of this project was to put to practice everything my team and I had learned throughout our four years at DU, and make the highest-caliber student film we could. I didn’t want people to tell that students produced it. The story is simple, but I wanted it to be made well enough that it felt real. I wanted the environment to feel as though we experience the story with Emma, not that we are simply observing a story about her.
“The Bird of Paradise” (or as my cast and crew came to call it, “BOP”) took on wings of its own after it’s debut in June of 2022. Since its entry into the festival circuit, BOP has won a Student Production Award from the Heartland EMMY Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and has been selected into over 8 festivals around the U.S. and the world. It’s won multiple awards including several honorable mentions nationwide, Best Student Short, Best Student Male Director and a Special Jury Mention at Indie Shorts Festival in Los Angeles.
Check out the film’s journey on its instagram @thebirdofparadisefilm, or listen to the podcast I was featured on where I talk more in depth about the process with my Editor, Davis Mawer.
