The Gilded Mirror grew out of my fascination with cinema as an illusionistic medium — one that promises intimacy while remaining fundamentally unreachable. I was drawn to early and classical filmmaking not out of nostalgia, but because those films openly embraced artifice, staging, and performance as expressive tools. Shooting on 16mm was essential to the project, allowing the material process of filmmaking to echo the film’s themes of obsession, memory, and control.
The film centers on a character attempting to resurrect meaning through ritual and repetition, mirroring my own interest in how cinema preserves—and distorts—the past. Rather than presenting realism, I wanted the film to feel deliberately constructed, closer to a performance than a document. In this way, The Gilded Mirror is both an exploration of personal fixation and a reflection on cinema’s enduring power to capture through illusion.
The film centers on a character attempting to resurrect meaning through ritual and repetition, mirroring my own interest in how cinema preserves—and distorts—the past. Rather than presenting realism, I wanted the film to feel deliberately constructed, closer to a performance than a document. In this way, The Gilded Mirror is both an exploration of personal fixation and a reflection on cinema’s enduring power to capture through illusion.
Runtime: 11:37
Format: Super 16mm
Credits: IMBD, Letterboxd
Shot entirely on the SFSU soundstage.
1 build day and 2 filming days.
All effects are practical.
Format: Super 16mm
Credits: IMBD, Letterboxd
Shot entirely on the SFSU soundstage.
1 build day and 2 filming days.
All effects are practical.