The Vanishing Field (2020)

Vision Statement. This film was inspired, in part, by my friend Jogen, a Zen priest who was a resident for fifteen years at the Great Vow Zen Monastery (where most of the film's scenes were shot). In this docufiction movie, Jogen plays the character of Jacob, a novice Zen monk wrestling with the aftermath of a shocking out-of-body experience while meditating. Though this story was set in a Zen Buddhist monastery with Buddhist non-actors, I never intended to make a "Buddhist movie". Instead, I felt ready to share a more personal story informed by my own traumatic out of body experience many years ago. Setting my story in a Zen monastery through the context of meditation practice opened up new ways to convey this life-changing event that continues to impact me and inspire my films to this day.