Filmmaker Statement

Ex Disposer is a gift. Daniel and I met during an Experimental Film course we took together, where we bonded over Adam Curtis films. Daniel’s experimental films reflected his time during hospitalization and the ways he tried to cope with the white noise of sitcoms to ease him. His insight intrigued me, but his script for Ex Disposer got me there. At the time I first read Ex Disposer, my day gig was at an independent film company, where my job consisted of covering scripts by people with credits and agents. Let me tell you – Daniel’s personal story stood out and beyond everything I read for work. Andy is the everyman who is more than his mental illness. He’s in need of empathy, from his friends and from himself, regarding his heightened anxiety. Daniel’s craft gives young men like Andy hope – for help from the shackles of masculinity, from the stigma of mental illness, and for the gift of empathy to yourself.