OPEN THE GATES

A documentation of surgery recovery, ego death, and learning to ask for help. This is my largest and most thoughtful short film yet, and I’m elated to share it with you. I've wanted to make a video expressing my thoughts and feelings on art, filmmaking, and creative collaboration for about a year. As I exited my fifth semester of college, I thought it right to finally execute that in the form of a video essay. That, as depicted, is not the direction I stayed in. I realized it's rare for 10 minutes of a white man talking about his feelings to be interesting, so I created this amalgam of scripted scenes and documentation as a true form of artistic expression. I am proud to present a piece of work that I not only spent my entire winter break making but also took my own advice and asked my friends to collaborate on. Thank you to Cole, Olli, and Tobi for catching my long overdue trust fall. I think it worked out pretty well. Thank you for watching. ~Nate Jensen