Scores | Acting | Directing

The Guardian (30 min, 16mm, in pre-production)
Brian Carpenter, writer, director
Gordon Arkenberg, cinematographer
Starring Cynthia Von Buhler, Brian Carpenter, and DJ Hazard
Sound design by Robert Lanzarotta

In 2002 I worked with NYC sound artist Robert Lanzarotta on using a soundtrack composition to inspire imagery. Guardian is a dark urban myth set in the streets, back alleys, and subways of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The protagonist, a twenty-something girl oblivious to her surroundings unwittingly places herself in dangerous situations which continually resolve themselves by an external force, a mysterious figure wrapped in shroud, her protector. A photographer obsessed with the girl starts noticing the figure in all of his photographs of her and decides to investigate. The film is shot in four short movements.

Vision, Vol. 3 (CD/DVD, 60 min, 2005, Aum Fidelity)
Patricia Parker, producer
Brian Carpenter, directory of photography

Vision: Vol 3 is a live concert DVD of the 2003 Vision Festival in NYC, featuring Matthew Shipp Quartet, William Parker, Andrew Cyrille/Kidd Jordan/William Parker, and interviews with Whit Dickey, Matthew Shipp, and producer Patricia Nicholson

Purchase Vision, Vol. 3 at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.



Already Dead (6 min, Super8, 2002)
Brian Carpenter, cinematographer

Already Dead explores the phenomenon of one's life being played back within a split-second of near-fatality. Bookended with jump-cut flashbacks, flashforwards, and in continual first-person motion, the film deals with the relationship of mortality and reflection in the context of the four seasons. Already Dead was shot on Super8 and screened at Boston CineSalon in February 2002.

Spirits Rejoice (85 min, DV, 16mm, in post-production)
Brian Carpenter, director
Gordon Arkenberg, 16mm cinematographer
Graham Reznick, live sound, sound design
Daniel Dzula, Matt Ryan, Mike Neel, Jeff Silva, Brian Carpenter, DV cameras

Featuring Edward Ayler, Peter Brotzmann, Milford Graves, Henry Grimes, Mats Gustafsson, Sunny Murray, William Parker, Gary Peacock, Marc Ribot, Roswell Rudd, Alan Silva, Michael Snow, and Ken Vandermark, with narration by Harvey Pekar and Albert Ayler. Actor and saxophonist Jeff Robinson plays Albert Ayler.

Spirits Rejoice is a feature-length documentary on today's free jazz scene as impacted by the life of saxophonist Albert Ayler, the mythological free music pioneer whose work in the 1960s kicked open the door for free improvised music. Ayler's search for continual development in the music through inner strength and spirituality was fought with a storm of controversy and criticism during his time. In 1970 his body was pulled from the East River, his death to this day shrouded in mystery. Decades after his death, a new generation of musicians, poets, dancers, painters, and filmmakers cite him as direct inspiration for their work. Spirits Rejoice takes us through the rollercoaster life and continued legacy of free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, switching betweeen his biography in black-and-white 16mm narrated by Harvey Pekar and Ayler himself, and his legacy in the form of interviews and riveting performances