Kirk Moon and The Wild Coyotes (2019) began as my first year thesis film while I was a Graduate Student at Loyola Marymount University. My given assignment was to make a short film with no more than five lines of dialogue. 

I wrote a few drafts about a guitarist named Kirk and decided I wanted to tell a story about the differentiation between “what we are” and “who we are”, and the measures of self worth we assign to our ability to “accomplish”.

Then the concept hit me: the story would be about a musician who can no longer create music- the only language he knows how to speak. Kirk himself became an examination of one's own ability to express the deepest parts of ourselves, our truth, but also our secrets. And in losing that gift and capacity to communicate, he loses his ability to speak or even ask for help. 

I found this concept aligned perfectly with my assigned limitations, and Kirk's isolation and muteness reinforced his internal strife. 

In producing this film, I wanted to tell a realistic, gripping, human story about the human condition, where the principal character was both protagonist and antagonist. Kirk Moon’s story is a study of character, loss, and ultimately how we shut people out while attempting to change inevitable events of pain.

Kirk Moon wanted to make his story one of overcoming the impossible, when it really turned out to be a story of finding peace in loss.