On a winter night in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven friends prepare for the evening, and share food and company. The story is told through gestures and text, including the derivations of some really old English words that relate to food and to gathering in the evening.

EXORDIUM is a collaboration with my friend and colleague, the award- winning poet Kevin McLellan.

Kevin and I met while we were working at the Program in Art, Culture and Technology at MIT. Kevin, an award-winning poet, has published two full-length poetry collections (Tributary and Ornitheology), the book-object (box), and the chapbook Round Trip, and his writing appears in several journals including: American Letters & Commentary, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, Sugar House Review, Western Humanities Review, and Witness.

EXORDIUM is our first collaboration. The word refers to a beginning, and it's related to the opening of an argument. We're making an argument with the film: that our ordered lives are grounded in a kind of privilege that no one – including us – really deserves. As we say in the trailer, something isn't right, and it never was.

Here’s the trailer: https://vimeo.com/309369742

Photography for the EXORDIUM trailer is by Laura Ryan Photographic.