The Filmmakers

Melissa Bond  – Writer/Producer

A tree backlit suddenly means dawn. This is how I imagine my work. Darkness and the unknown suddenly become known. When I write, a tree or a child or a thought gets lit by sun. The very act of writing is a way of seeing, of feeling my way in the shadows, in the sea bottom dark. In the process, things that I’ve been blind to reveal themselves. There’s a breathtaking intimacy: child, tree, thought. I’ve written my way to them and so very often I discover something I hadn’t known existed.

My work, especially since the birth of my son, has been to render the invisible visible—disability; the way grief in reverse becomes joy. If words are portals, then I want to provide a world of portals into places in which our culture is often blind. It is a parallel path. I’m a fool walking hand and hand with other fools and writing my way to the garden in front of me: the columbines with their tilted star heads; my children who sprout loose and wild; the beautiful body of the earth.

Currently, I have a book of creative non-fiction called Wide Eye Boy that I want to send with wings into the world. I’ve always felt as Joseph Brodsky does that, “the eye identifies itself not with the body it belongs to but with the object of its attention.” With this in mind, I’ve begun creating short videos of my prose poems. The most recent is Goooged. My aim is to use the book and the film as doorways to conversation. I’d like to speak about the power disability has to reveal us to ourselves. We turn away, perhaps. We pity or elevate. I’d like to speak about the language of disability and how it shapes our vision. With Wide Eye Boy, I’d like to give people the experience that I’ve had in falling in love with a boy who was called slow and who has taught me a greater humanity than I’ve ever known.

Christopher Lee – Director & Alexander Lee – Editor

Christopher and Alexander Lee run TWIG Media Lab in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Their films strike an emotional resonance by combining innovative film making techniques and a devotion to issues of humanity, education, the environment and the arts.  Gooogled is the second film that TWIG has collaborated on with Melissa Bond.  

Aaron Webb – Composer

Aaron is a composer, sound technician, and educator. His composition and performance credits include music for the stage and screen for many local and national organizations. He has taught in public schools, universities, and presented at conferences. He has also served as the lead music specialist for educational camps for film production and for students with disabilities. He graduated with an MM in Music Education from the University of Utah. He loves beagles, music, cooking, reading, the Utes, and the outdoors.