ZERO • early experiments • deleted scenes • a junkyard of dying thoughts
Empathy Trending • SD, HDV, 16mm found & direct • 03:03 • 2025
Deleted scene from "The Shape of Things to Come" - 2025 • Video, Music & Text by Tommy Becker • Vocals, lead guitar & drum programming by Tommy Becker • Bass guitar by John-Paul McLeaneMix & Mastered by Adam Fogel • 16mm scanning by Movette Film Transfer • Found footage: When the Circuits Breaks (1975) • Clown performance from - Clown Torture by Bruce Nauman (1987) • Appropriated guest appearances by: Captain Marvel, The Flash, She-Ra, Black Falcon, Thor • Other footage sourced from Pond5
I Can Be Happy Trapped in a Living Room With a Rabbit That Has No Eyes • SD • 02:48 • 2001
A surreal, lo-fi presentation of the popularized Buddhist teaching of surrender. In a stark room, a young man struggles to overcome his anxieties of confinement with an eyeless rabbit. Failing to befriend the bunny, he turns inward in hopes of shifting perspective.
Video & Text: written, recorded, edited & performed by Tommy Becker, 2001
A Trading Card Film • HDV • 03:45 • 2024
When I was a high school art teacher, I had a record player in the classroom. On the weekends, I bought records and trading cards at the flea market. During the school week we had fun pairing soundtracks with the characters on the cards. The students were into it and always recommended contemporary songs from their playlists which made for some fun listening exchanges. I filmed a card a week during lunch break over the course of the school year. This is compilation of favorites.
Song for the Bird in my Backyard • SD • 2002
"Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link." - Simone Weil
A durational performance work • Live feedback and vocals performed to looping bird footage • tape number one - 2002
Conversations • HDV, found, 16mm direct & archival • 4min • 2017
Self-imprisonment in mobile streams of comfort consciousness. Media bubbles mix with illustrated flowers and found photographs. An attempt to code a conversation. Escape! Disrupt the platform's spell. Above the city, poetic birds. Signaling ones needs and fears to another is essential to life. Let the conversations take off.
Video, Words & Music: written, recorded, edited & performed by Tommy BeckerVocals, guitars, synth & drum programming by T. Becker / Interlude vocals featuring Little e. Monologue clips from - Animals and How They Communicate (1966)
PAPER MACHE (a conjuring of forms through paper & glue) • SD, HDV, 16mm found • 2023
Deleted scene from “Elective: ART” - 2023 • Video & Music: written, recorded, edited & performed by Tommy Becker • Lead and bass guitar by Tommy Becker • Found footage: Paper Mache - ACI productions (1967)
ANIMAL, ANIMAL (song for the fate of animals) • SD, HDV, Found • 02:24 • 2003/2018
A celebration of the wild mixes with icons of the inhumane. A war chant heard bellowing from the mouths of animals is interrupted by a poetic stream of consciousness. The mantra returns to fuel the creature’s protest as a bombardment of images continues to call into question, “Who are the true animals of this world?” REVIEW
Video, Music & Text: written, recorded, edited & performed by Tommy Becker@2003
Hellos & Goodbyes • SD, HDV • 03:00 • 2010
“We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them.” - T.S. Eliot
This video poem was compiled from a variety of gift cards found at the local grocery and is dedicated to the fleeting relationships of contemporary life. Hellos & Goodbyes leads viewers through the birth and death of a romantic relationship using the cliché lines of purchased gift cards. Within the script, a second voice emerges to reveal a more authentic picture as the relationship blossoms, sours, and disappears.
Video, Music & Text: written, recorded, edited & performed by Tommy Becker@2010 Additional voice by - E. Becker
Stars White in a Blue Field • HDV, 16mm direct • 5min • 2018/2024
"One day we'll all find out that all of our songs was just little notes in a great big song!" - Woody Guthrie
A non partisan poem about America's political divide. A search for inherent values through a symbolic restructuring. A cathartic search for compassion, communication and common sense.
Video, Music and Text: written, recorded, edited and performed by Tommy Becker, 2018/2024. Flag Deconstruction Interlude: Video synth by Kit Young, edited by Tommy Becker, sound by Lori Varga & Tommy Becker.
Song for the Collectors • 4min 40sec • SD, HDV & Found • 2011
A search for fulfillment through the collecting of metaphysical experiences leads viewers into a desensitized world where an isolated individual finds solace in his peculiar obsessions, private possessions and favorite television programs. In the video short, “Song for the Collectors”, images of tragic environmental disasters and sensational web videos blend with bits of iconic pop imagery to tell the story of a collector who has lost touch with reality in pursuit of collectible memorabilia connected to grand and catastrophic environmental events.
Video, Music & Text: written, recorded, performed and edited by t.becker | backing vocals - E. Becker • 2011 • public domain footage - prelinger archives