Joel is a project that my partner Richard Min and I filmed and produced that aims to challenge the way we glance and overlook the “everyday” moments by interpreting them through a prophetic voice, Joel. In studying 17th century dutch art, we were both intrigued at how easy it was to pass over a painting and totally forfeit the opportunity to interact with it’s real content, its deeper presence and message. We also entertained a critique against modern technology’s use of art in ways that gave away too much too easily to it’s viewers. How could we resist the obvious, the cliche or our own instant gratification in art? Inspired by the depth of Orthodox icons and it’s ability to “open up the heavens,” we wanted to create a window into a divine reality, but in a slightly different way, through scenes of the mundane, everyday, common spaces.
In our film we staged nothing, and only shot scenes as they approached us, setting up the camera or capturing what was already going on. We wanted the images to be honest. We meditated on Peter’s recitation of a Joel prophecy that apostle proclaimed to skeptics and onlookers who were observing what was turning out to be a divine reality poured out on everyday people. This is precisely our goal in this film, interpreting the everyday as an unfolding prophetic reality.