Mercury Black Magic, Salina, KS is a meditation on being young and restless. A young man transfers his grief into the reconstruction of a 1980’s muscle car. His description of this restoration parallels the coming to terms with the emotions related to the loss of his father. This piece follows him through the landscape in which he and his friends hangout, together.

This work is created amongst the young people of Salina, Kansas.  They were hanging out at lookouts, parking spaces, and park shelters, doing seemly nothing, but to them (and me) everything: listening to music, gossiping, relaxing, being. These moments are often described as nothing or as boredom or as inconsequential, but these are the moments with the most potential. Maybe these instances will not be recounted or thought of as memorable but, to me these moments feel the most intense. Before there is time for reflection these times are over, exhausted without ceremony.

My filmmaking often exists in this space, an unremarkable moment marked by a visual record of it. This is less a full understanding of a place, but my impression, a trace of a series of moments or an attempt to understand the world. This is an attempt to make something with the participation of the young people I met in Salina.