Russell Sheaffer

Editor, Producer, Director

In this experimental short film, two men go in search of connection with each other; symbolically shedding their clothes along the way.

Alone

ON SURGERY is a part of a series of collaborative works that explore the intersections of trauma, memory, and abstraction.

On Surgery

Shrike

Signs

An exploration of our freedom in the modern metropolis.

Free to Be Free

A mediation on physical and psychological trauma with a self portrait locked on repeat.

Broken Jaw

Set in a highly stylized environment, Intimacy follows a woman who assaults her husband with kitchen items.

Intimacy

Polysemy is comprised entirely of single frame images shot on 16mm film and edited entirely in camera.

Polysemy

After receiving a difficult medical diagnosis, experimental filmmaker Russell Sheaffer decided to use a roll of 16mm film as a written diary. Projected, Acetate Diary is an expression of handmade sound and color. Examined as an object, the acetate contains words and drawings from a place of trauma.

Acetate Diary

Please see other documentation - the system rejects some non-latin characters.

Whatever Comes Next

Bob Metcalf wants to find a boyfriend, but at 70 years old he's finding that's easier said than done. He's computer illiterate and over 150 miles from the nearest gay bar; Bob is the gay guy boys block on Grindr. M4M: Seeks Love demonstrates what happens to one man who never found love but won't give up.

M4M: Seeks Love

Stuck in her dad's boring lunch meeting, little Ella suddenly discovers the curious case of all the mustaches.

Wishful Whiskers

A young Kenyan's life changes drastically when his education is sponsored by a Swedish stranger. Years later, he founds his own scholarship program to replicate the kindness he once received.

A Small Act

A filmmaker ventures into the archives of her photographer mother to construct a personal story of love, loss, and finding someone in the work they leave behind.

A Photographic Memory

Creative bricolage theatrically tracing the life and demise of Boston’s oldest and most notorious gay bar. 

With an eclectic ensemble of queer performers, including drag icon Lady Bunny and Pose’s Danielle Cooper, Playland is transdisciplinary in every sense of the word: music, dance, archival footage, tableaux, opera, and performance art are layered into an ethereal piece subverting all boundaries.

Artist-filmmaker Georden West’s debut feature is an expressionist and very queer bricolage, focusing on an atemporal night in the renowned Playland Café. Following its employees and others who have haunted the space, weaving together a tapestry of personal and community anecdotes across the bar’s existence.

The Playland Café, Boston’s oldest gay bar, was established in 1937 and was a vital queer hub in the city until 1998, when rampant ‘urban renewal’ projects led to its closure. Demolished but never forgotten, it acted as a meeting ground for an exceptionally diverse crowd — throughout its lifespan, it featured acts from drag performances to DJ sets and was connected to Pride rallies and underground gay newspapers. As a gathering place for outsiders, it was also a target for police raids and zoning.

Alluding to experimental works like that of Derek Jarman and Sally Potter, West has crafted an uncanny and inventive film that boldly transcends physical space, reminding us that though certain pioneering queer spaces may be gone, their memories cannot be erased.

Playland

Two hapless drifters, Frank and Bruno, team up with Linde to recover her land and trek across 1870's Southern Arizona to find an elusive frontier musician. The complex quantum time theory is blended with philosophical musings about art as the way we understand our history and memories, with gunfights, horses, dance halls, cacti, and saloons.

Quantum Cowboys

A rumination on parenting, razor blades, facial hair, Jell-o shots, Coyote Ugly, and Russell Crowe.

An Imagined Violet

A young Indigenous girl discovers a Latina migrant her age who has been separated from her father in the beautiful but dangerous Sonoran desert.

Burros

Two young lovers, Maya and Jules, are found wrecked on the side of the road after a party by a loner roughneck, Freddy. During rehab, their relationship falls apart, and Maya forms an unlikely friendship with Freddy.

Jules of Light and Dark

"Dick Pics!" is a short, stop-motion animated documentary that gathers men from all walks of life and asks them one of the most important questions of the modern era: "What in gods name compels you to send pictures of your penis to non-consenting others?"

Dick Pics! (A Documentary)

Keuning: Broken Clocks

Keuning: Gimme Your Heart

Keuning: The Queen's Finest

Keuning: Boat Accident

Keuning: Prismism

Keuning: Restless Legs

Santiago Gonzalez IV, a first generation Mexican-American, struggles with the tensions between his sexuality, nationality, and religion as he prepares for his college graduation.

Saltwater Baptism

Cult icon and minor Cleveland celebrity Marc Brown is known for his bizarre late night TV commercials promoting his store, Norton Furniture. Meet the man behind the commercials and discover the method to his madness.

My Name is Marc, and You Can Count on It

Étude 1a: Release

A collaborative work between independent filmmaker Russell Sheaffer and composer Aaron Michael Smith, "it's so easy (the mechanism of power)" creates a dystopian landscape that explores the repercussions of disproportionate access to moments in others' lives. 

In 2015, a post-accident legal dispute took a surprising turn when the defense attorneys attempted to draw upon extensive surveillance footage of Sheaffer taken during the Atlanta Film Festival, held earlier that year. Sheaffer, and everyone he had come into contact with that weekend -- friends, festival staff, and strangers alike -- were all the unwitting subjects of this footage. 

"it's so easy (the mechanism of power)" manipulates the repurposed surveillance footage and new footage from within the installation in real time, creating a fractured and ever-changing visual and audio landscape that examines the ease with which the unsuspecting bystander becomes subject.

It's So Easy (the Mechanism of Power)

Two lesbian hookers wind their way through a world of bargain-hunting housewives and double-dealing conservative women in this buddy comedy, an homage to and riff on iconic male hustler films.

The Foxy Merkins

There are places you go, where the things you do will matter to a lot of people. Then there are places you will go, where the things you will do matter only to a very few. But to those few, they will matter - a lot.

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely

Indiana does not legally recognize Frankie and his partner's family. Regardless, his mother Mimsie guaranteed that the two dads and their eight adopted children stuck thicker than blood. Her life story inaugurated this family, but as she always taught, 'another story continues after.'

We'll Be All Right

Shot entirely on 16mm film, Blood on the Window is a series of meditations on photographs in which the filmmaker tries to grapple with his current psychological and physical state after a serious car accident that left him without a memory of the trauma.

Blood on the Window

Explores fantasy through an examination of morning ritualism.

Monotony

Explores and questions issues of violence and cultural memory in rural spaces.

Memory of Objects

A young man's libido interrupts his studies.

Arthur and the Unicorn

Series focuses on captivating stories of women in sports, told through the lens of female filmmakers. Nine for IX film topics include an intimate look at Pat Summitt, college sports' most successful coach ever; the largely unknown history of Katarina Witt and her link with East Germany's secret police; and the focus of sex in the marketing of female athletes.

Nine for IX

At the height of the Cold War, Katarina Witt became one of East Germany's most famous athletes. Trained in an ice rink that gave rise to socialist heroes, Witt dominated her field by winning six European skating titles, five world championships and back-to-back Olympic gold medals, becoming arguably the world's best figure skater.

The Diplomat

Road Comics: Big Work on Small Stages is a documentary that follows the creative brilliance of three stand-up comics working the comedy club circuit in the "flyover zones" of middle America. It documents the perseverance of these working class artists making their living by being funny on the road.

Road Comics: Big Work on Small Stages

Der Ozean im Fingerhut

During the height of political tensions in 1960s Berlin, a little girl was peacefully transferred from East to West Berlin by her family's effort and love.

The Forgetting Game

Jason explains his decision to undergo a major life change to his parents, and in the process learns more about himself.

Jason

A concert documentary shot during the Glee Live! In Concert! summer 2011 tour, featuring song performances and Glee fans' life stories and how the show influenced them.

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie

Masculinity & Me

SXSW Midnight Short selection. An isolated young woman uses her vibrator compulsively — until it starts deforming her body in disturbing ways. To regain control and change the way she masturbates, she goes on a journey through a lurid underground of corporate neurologists and orgasm gurus, none of whom seem to have her best interests in mind. Ultimately, there’s little she can do to withstand her vibrator’s eerie influence. Directed by Kara Strait.

Vibrator Girl

Masculinity/Femininity is an experimental film project interrogating normative notions of gender, sexuality and performance. Shot primarily on Super 8, the project merges academic and creative critique -- a document of gender de-construction rather than a documentary about gender construction.