The Bardo Trilogy
Orson Welles' heart has just stopped.
We enter his mind in this moment, on the threshold between life and death.
In the bardo Orson’s thoughts unspool as a stream of consciousness that loops back on itself, like a Möbius strip. Three avatars onstage in the theater of his mind are paired with three oneiric films within the film as he shuffles through his memories, loves, regrets, like a magician preparing for one last trick.
Is he ready for what comes next?Orson Rehearsed
The myths of Orpheus and Charon are interwoven with the entirely sung story of four friends dining in an Italian bistro who are fated to perish the next morning in the attack on the Twin Towers.
At meal’s end, through magical realism, the restaurant’s mysterious strolling violinist is revealed to be Charon, hand extended, awaiting payment.
Complying, each reconciles with death, and departs to the sounds of the next morning’s busy signals and the calls of first responders.9/10: Love Before the Fall
The conventions of documentary, musical theater, and magical realism are combined and subverted to address themes of personal, national, and artistic identity through the eyes of Robbie Doerfler, a composer desperate to pull off one final backer’s audition.
He is joined by his friends Roger and Rose whilst hounded by a disdainful documentarian named Charon.
The trilogy culminates in a poignant and thought-provoking question: “Where do we go when we go up — is it Heaven?”