Pine Tree

An obsessive carpenter is forced to reevaluate his life and relationship when his latest creation, a beautifully crafted table, begins to speak to him.

Pine Tree began as a way of confronting a fear I discovered in myself while studying film: the fear of letting my work be seen. After years of fighting to become a filmmaker (rejections, community college, and finally earning my place at Temple, I realized the hardest part wasn't making something. It was releasing it. The film follows a carpenter who creates beautiful furniture but hoards his best work, unable to let it exist outside the safety of his workshop. When one of his creations begins speaking to him, the miracle of what he has made becomes a burden he can no longer control. Through this strange and intimate story, I wanted to explore the moment when an artist must decide whether to protect their work, or allow it to live a life of its own.

Blending magical realism with a handmade visual world, Pine Tree explores themes of artistic insecurity, authorship, and the fragile boundary between creation and control. At its heart, the film asks what happens when something deeply personal leaves the "warm embrace" of the artist and enters a world where it can be interpreted, criticized, or misunderstood. The story also reflects the tension between private obsession and shared life, as the protagonist's inability to release his work threatens his relationship with the person who believes in him most. Pine Tree ultimately became a reflection on the courage required to let art go, and the realization that once a piece is finished, it no longer belongs solely to the person who made it.