Home is Where: Embracing Positive Space with Texas Smith

How did you first learn about the band Home is Where? 

Our relationship started organically, in a way… Their first studio release (I Became Birds) was recommended to me on a streaming platform, and then I quickly became obsessed with their sound. I fell in love with the complexity and nuance that was in their songwriting. I loved Brandon’s ability to oscillate between lyrics, like “cops are flammable,” to chanting about her urge to pet puppies. Their music was alive to me.

I "slid into their DM’s like Giffield" when they were touring Chicago in 2021; we met up. Brandon said she liked my coat–it was winter. We all seemingly got along.

How did this project start? Why were you drawn to this song in particular?

Fellow local filmmaker Pavit Gandhi and I made a little micro-doc with one cartridge of Super8 at that first meeting in 2021, and then in 2022, we released a flicker film as a visual accompaniment to their screamo single, NAMES (from their split with Record Setter). So we had a bit of artistic, small-scale rapport. They were gracious enough to have our team in mind when they had the need for a full-blown music video/concept to promote their sophomore album [out now].

As far as the particular song, that was all the band. Brandon says that the song “tells the story of two people faking normalcy in the normalcy of faking. The idea or even the image (no matter how altered or perfectly copied) of love is no substitute for the real.” But she likes to tell tall tales. Who knows why this single and music video actually exists? In spite of that, it was a joy to make.

What creative influences did you look towards in this project?

I like to ask myself WWJD before each project: What Would Jonathan (Demme) Do? We stole some close-up compositions from SOMETHING WILD. 

I have also been remotely studying with the Baltic Analog Lab (Latvia) this year. I was considering a lot of cityscapes and the idea of cityscapes on my jaunty drive from Arkansas to Florida. Pennebaker’s DAYBREAK EXPRESS was a thing I rewatched. I’m also always thinking about how Elaine May, Spike Lee, and Richard Linklater would film something… 

I try and be a student of medium, so there’s more. But it’s tricky to pinpoint exactly what I was thinking about or what I thought I was thinking about before or on set. There, I’m way more focused on making sure the space is safe and playful.

Oh, I made Emma (our lead) wear a Something She T-shirt in the film and then bugged Alex Ross Perry on Instagram to get his blessing to say that the whole video takes place in the HER SMELL universe.

What camera and lens did you choose for the digital parts of the video? How did they inform your visuals creatively?

We worked with a Sony FX9 for our digital excerpt. We really wanted to have something that could give us something staunchly different to our 16mm visuals. 

If the song is about the performance of love, we wanted to visually show the two sides of that: the romantic, soft patina of 200T and the clinical day in day out, cold look of the Sony.

What was the collaboration between you and Matt like?

I love Matt dearly. We just talked shop over the phone before the shoot (with him being in Chicago and me sitting in Arkansas right now). We really just let the ideas evolve from these conversations and a 1 am Waffle House meal he, Camryn Tabiolo**, and I shared when they landed in Florida.

**Our Swing and Associate Producer.

What was a unique creative challenge that you faced in the creation of this music video?

I’m from the American South and find the land here to be especially haunted. I like working with other folks from around here who see/struggle with the same ghosts. With the band being from Florida, I was excited to get a chance to film some of this haunted landscape, but due to budget constraints, we had to do all our scouting virtually– that just required dialogue with the band upfront because they were the experts on the spaces we were entering. More of a quirk than a challenge. Time seems to always be the only real challenge.

Please elaborate more on how using multiple materials (multi-media) informs the music video and your aesthetic preferences overall.

I have bad vision, so my literal view of the world is soft. And again, I’m kind of a movie nerd, so between my impairment and aesthetic preferences, shooting celluloid over the last few years has just made sense. Sure, we get fewer takes, and sometimes we have to compromise. But I like the energy that that brings to set: makes it harder to take yourself too seriously when a piece of plastic ribbon is giving you fits. It’s also a lot easier to time travel on a budget with era-appropriate gear.

Specifically, why use multi-media (film and digital)? Any use of film in 2023 is in conversation with our current trends. Why not put that dialogue on screen?

What role does queerness play in the visualization of the song?

Home is Where is led by two Trans women. It was important that we made this production and picture depict that in some way. It’s almost trite to say, but the world is really violent to Trans folk. Hopefully, this film shows some Trans joy and well-being. 

When I make things, I just want to create positive spaces, little escapes from reality… I hope that audiences can find that in this piece.

...Also, while I'm at it, I'd love to shout out Intransitive. They're an organization down here in Arkansas doing essential work on the ground. Please follow and support them if you have the means.

What’s your favorite moment while filming the music video?

Josiah’s (Drummer) amazing partner Marissa made us some really amazing homecooked meals at the end of each day. Those were really great times for our little crew to take some deep breaths and laugh.

Texas Smith (he/they) is a sometimes Chicago-based, award-winning Arkansas filmmaker. A proud member of the IFA Chicago & the Arkansas Cinema Society, they’re a BlackBox ACADEMY alum & DePaul MFA candidate whose films have screened across the US–including Academy-Award Qualifying festivals like Seattle International Film Festival, deadCenter, Athens International–and been featured on esteemed music publications like Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, and more. In 2022, they were awarded an inaugural CXF artist grant from The Medium by CACHE, and most recently, they were invited by the Baltic Analog Lab to participate in their 2023 cohort.