The Painter

AI is doing impossible things, creating alternate realities out of thin air. What is going on? Are we dreaming or is this really happening? And who are we in the midst of a reality that is ever shifting underneath our feet? Created in collaboration with generative AI and based on a single iPhone selfie, “The Painter” is a deeply personal meditation on the fluidity of identity in an impermanent, disorienting world. The film follows my alter-ego, a painter, trapped in a dream, as he is catapulted through a series of unfamiliar identities. We see him take on different monstrous forms in studios he has never been in filled with paintings he has never painted. His voice drifts between panicked terror, stream-of-consciousness and disoriented self-reflection as he struggles to make sense of this surreal yet strangely familiar world.

Daniel Brody
Daniel Brody is a multimedia artist who is interested in creating works that open up new psychological and spiritual spaces. Brody was born in New York City and is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art. He currently resides in upstate New York, where, after a career as an architectural renderer, he has returned to his first passions of filmmaking and art. His films have been installed in museums, won numerous awards and been screened at festivals around the world. Highlights include: screening on PBS, first place Ann Arbor Super 8 Festival, top Jurors Award at the Artist of the Mohawk Hudson Region (juror Rachel Uffner).