Summer Tunnel (Feature Film)

Feature film I directed and co-wrote, released 2021. Surreal comedy, 80min, low budget. Filmed mostly in Palo Alto, CA and the ghost town of Drawbridge, CA.

The synopsis is “There's a problem with the water and the mayor doesn't have any answers. Two friends turned enemies must journey into the sewer and confront the past... and the sewer man.”

But really, this started off as a 15min short and we made it up as we went along, some scenes were even improvised just based off an idea. I’ve called it a jazz movie at times. The “plot” was mostly just an excuse to start filming during the summer after college when we were all unemployed David Lynch disciples and didn’t know when we’d get another chance to make a movie. At the same time, from the very first idea, I had the conviction that everything we wrote and filmed was part of something bigger, that it would all come together in the end––that Summer Tunnel was revealing itself to us.

The film ended up reflecting many things going on in our lives and in our environment, sometimes in intentional ways, but often in ways I don’t think any of us were aware of at the time. Almost two years after Summer Tunnel’s release, I can say it has its triumphs, it has its flaws, and every part of it speaks to some truth about the people who made it and what was going on during its production.

EDIT 9-9-2023:

After making this post, I began to have a nagging feeling about some aspects of the film, decisions I could no longer sit with. So I’ve edited a new version that flows better and is mildly more coherent than the original. Here’s the Director’s Redux.