A young man’s fantasy of a jock he is infatuated with devolves into a blood-soaked nightmare when his repressed desires manifest as a horrific act of violence.

WORM HUNGER is a film born from the words of author William S. Burroughs in his seminal novel, "Queer". In one passage, he describes the protagonist's desire for another man as "straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other's body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals". With this phrase, Burroughs articulates a distinctly queer yearning for connection that, when portrayed on screen, is as erotic as it is violent.

I felt that 16mm was the best format to capture that juxtaposition. Its grain is soft, like the tenderness of these emotions, yet gritty, like the primal urges beneath. My partner, Collin Aull, shot on the Bolex H16 Reflex to bring those textured images to life and composed the original score for the film. Together, these images and sounds exist in the surreal space between grindhouse and arthouse.

My team and I challenged ourselves to break taboos and shamelessly explore queer sexuality by crafting visceral images that don't hold back. These visuals of soft flesh are paired with archival footage of cold, hard metal machinery. This conveys the joy of discovering one's sexuality, the intensity of realizing how deep those sexual desires lie, the disgust and self-loathing this can create, and how homosexual experiences are innately beautiful and powerful.