Michael Lavine

Filmmaker, Photographer

How about this for a logline: Renowned music photographer takes a break from his successful career to work with puppets in a barn. Based on a true story! I have a lifetime of experience swinging a camera around but I’m relatively new to thinking about story and expressing ideas through moving images. It’s a steep curve. Fully aware of my privileged credentials as an old white man, I’ve turned my sights inward, focusing on Epistemology, world building with old junk, and sewing! I’m challenging myself with the difficult undertaking of making a stop motion animation series using the genre of Science Fiction as my spring board. Sci-Fi is basically like a western in space, usually about rugged individuals navigating a harsh desolate terrain, a grand metaphor for the basic struggles we all face.

The Dark Odyssey 2: Ice Nexus

The Dark Odyssey

A distressed young woman leaves the city for the weekend with the hopes of clearing her head, but meets a mysterious hitchhiker who only confuses things more. The farther she goes to escape the more she finds herself trapped.

Weekend Away

Trapped

Getting drunk with his cat after work, a lonely and depressed Bryan takes his friend Renata's suggestion and turns to the help of a psychic named Willow, who delivers an ominous and dark tarot reading that pushes Bryan to the brink. Not knowing where to turn, Bryan reaches out to Renata, who cannot save him from himself.

Swan Dive

A real time journey witnessing the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of the fierce feminist pioneers of American grunge punk: L7.

L7: Pretend We're Dead

An authorized documentary on the late musician Kurt Cobain, from his early days in Aberdeen, Washington to his success and downfall with the grunge band Nirvana.