“It’s Republican propaganda.”

A critic.

“You could have caused a super-spreader event.”

Another Critic

“It’s really too soon to be making jokes like that.”

Critic #3

Maybe so, but my vision for Coronut wasn’t really any of those things.

To be fair, Coronut is more Ed Wood than F.W. Murneau, but I didn’t go into the project with camp in mind.

Coronut is an expression of my anxieties documented during a family vacation we took during the first lockdown phase of COVID-19 in 2020. It’s a carnival grotesque, if you will, inspired by The Blair Witch Project, Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and Albert Camus’ The Plague.

I was terrified of meeting friends at an Air B&B in Colorado, but human nature is what it is. My wife and I were feeling isolated from three months of quarantining and decided to take the risk to relax over the long Memorial Day weekend. To deal with my nerves I hit record on my phone and pretended we were in a movie.

Say what you will about the film, I’m most proud that I recorded all the dramatic scenes in one take (I’m sure it shows). Most of my friends who appeared in the movie didn’t know they were in it until well after the camera was rolling. For the most part, everyone was a good sport about it.

This has been a tough year. There has been plenty to adapt to, death flickers in and out of our lives, at a distance and then up close. I frequently worry about the wellbeing of our world generally and my family specifically. Working on Coronut has provided some catharsis.