Anacapa (2024)
To the [exhale] lighthouse.
Director Biography - Russell Sheaffer, Aaron Michael Smith
RUSSELL SHEAFFER
Russell Sheaffer is a documentary and experimental filmmaker who received a Master’s Degree from NYU’s Department of Cinema Studies and a PhD from Indiana University's Department of Communication and Culture. In addition to his own experimental work, he has worked as a producer for documentary and fiction films, including Josephine Decker’s "Thou Wast Mild and Lovely," which premiered at Berlinale (2014) and Daniel Laabs' "Jules of Light and Dark" (2018), which won the grand jury awards at both Newfest and Outfest.
AARON MICHAEL SMITH
Aaron is a composer, violist and artist currently based in Boston, MA. Aaron is interested in exploring the way that various practices and mediums overlap, reflect and contradict one another. He is often engaged in collaborations with filmmakers, visual artists, philosophers, poets and other musicians. Aaron has presented his work, given lectures on electronic music and held multimedia workshops at various institutions including the New Orleans Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Film Festival and Universidad Austral de Chile Acoustics Institute. Aaron is one half of "grein," an experimental improv duo, with Jay Rauch. Aaron is also one half of "G R I M M E R," an electronic duo, with André Mestre. He releases solo albums on Bandcamp under the name, "UN/NO."