freak farm | experimental short

year: 2026

about: A three-minute exploration of modernity and belonging, FREAK FARM incorporates phone footage, recorded sound, and audio effects to create an impressionistic, lyrical look at alienation and isolation. The film evokes a sense of discordance with its images, atmospheric texture, and editing.

upcoming screenings: world premiere september 24 2026 at local sightings

thoughts: Freak Farm uses sound and image to look at isolation and belonging, a theme I've returned to frequently in different ways across my work to date. This film had a kitchen sink approach, with me throwing disparate images and sounds together almost randomly and then slowly subtracting them or adjusting them until a shape began to present itself, which I can best describe as a feeling of sustained imbalance, one mirroring how I feel sometimes out and about in the world. Once Freak Farm began to take final form in the editing room, I wrote and recorded the voiceover that closes the project which is meant both to contribute to the feeling of the film and provide a summation of its theme.

a northern flicker films project | directed and edited by brian padian | music by impermanent marker| voice by reginald k butters | sound design by tucky birdbath