Screenwriter
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Welcome to my website!
Thank you for coming here to sample my work, learn about the latest, or reach out.
Conceptual art
Works in Money demonstrates the role of money in art-world signification since Duchamp. It includes both an exhibit of works made of money--as in Quilt, above--and a philosophical essay arguing that money is necessary to modern art-world meaning. Ready-mades are symptomatic of industrialization and unique to the modern art world, because made at machines in factories, and because the art world is the one space that can spiritualize such spirit-less objects. As I attempt to show, money is paradoxically necessary for their intelligibility as spiritually distinct in an art-world space. While the four quilts at the heart of the exhibit are not ready-mades (the other objects in it are), they are meant to provoke ambivalence about the role of money in art-world encounters and the necessary power of the art world to revalue anything with exchange value.
(Quilt design assistant: Amelie Chanfreau
Quilters: Amelie Chanfreau and Sungyeon Kim)
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For the screen:
THE HONEYGUIDE
Aluna, a small but brave girl in Mozambique, follows a honeyguide bird to rescue a hive of wild bees. Girl and mischievous bird form a mystical bond as they encounter danger and beauty in savanna and forest. An animated feature, THE HONEYGUIDE blends ecological realism and child-like wonder for a vivid, poignant story of defending the richness of the world.
(Registered with WGA)
HONEYGUIDES
This animated series, co-created by Catherine Cilek, portrays adventurous girls in diverse settings (Mozambique,
Cuba, Yemen, USA, Iran, etc.) who protect wildlife while navigating their communities.
(Storydeck by J. Moyer and C. Cilek; pilot by J. Moyer;
© James Moyer and Catherine Cilek 2020)
TWO VIRGINS
A brother and sister fall in love while home from college for Thanksgiving, bonding over their outrage about the Iraq war. The story juxtaposes the moral obscenity of incest with that of civilian deaths in a war of choice, challenging viewer silence about the latter. Vital and iconoclastic, the characters push the bounds of discourse on war, love, and morality.
(Registered with WGA)
POLE STAR
Tabitha, 23, is a strip dancer at a night club. By day, she trains for the U.S. Pole Dance Federation's National Championship, the sport her passion and refuge. One day, she joins a fellow dancer to console Iraq war veterans at the naval hospital. Her deepening bond with the men helps her overcome her own scarred past.
This is a competitive dance movie with an edge, and a heart.
POLE STAR puts the chrome pole, already in local gyms around the world, at the center of a meditation on independent women, shifting attitudes of artistic taste and sexual respect, and the impact of the Iraq war.
(Registered with WGA)
JERONIMO
An Apache warrior of unknown origin befriends two activist women, one Native, one white, in today's New Mexico. They transform his consciousness, more than the other way around, while his anachronistic response to unjust facts provokes a manhunt that culminates in a surreal balloon chase over Albuquerque.
(Registered with WGA)
Thank you for coming here to sample my work, learn about the latest, or reach out.
Conceptual art
Works in Money demonstrates the role of money in art-world signification since Duchamp. It includes both an exhibit of works made of money--as in Quilt, above--and a philosophical essay arguing that money is necessary to modern art-world meaning. Ready-mades are symptomatic of industrialization and unique to the modern art world, because made at machines in factories, and because the art world is the one space that can spiritualize such spirit-less objects. As I attempt to show, money is paradoxically necessary for their intelligibility as spiritually distinct in an art-world space. While the four quilts at the heart of the exhibit are not ready-mades (the other objects in it are), they are meant to provoke ambivalence about the role of money in art-world encounters and the necessary power of the art world to revalue anything with exchange value.
(Quilt design assistant: Amelie Chanfreau
Quilters: Amelie Chanfreau and Sungyeon Kim)
--------------------------------------------
For the screen:
THE HONEYGUIDE
Aluna, a small but brave girl in Mozambique, follows a honeyguide bird to rescue a hive of wild bees. Girl and mischievous bird form a mystical bond as they encounter danger and beauty in savanna and forest. An animated feature, THE HONEYGUIDE blends ecological realism and child-like wonder for a vivid, poignant story of defending the richness of the world.
(Registered with WGA)
HONEYGUIDES
This animated series, co-created by Catherine Cilek, portrays adventurous girls in diverse settings (Mozambique,
Cuba, Yemen, USA, Iran, etc.) who protect wildlife while navigating their communities.
(Storydeck by J. Moyer and C. Cilek; pilot by J. Moyer;
© James Moyer and Catherine Cilek 2020)
TWO VIRGINS
A brother and sister fall in love while home from college for Thanksgiving, bonding over their outrage about the Iraq war. The story juxtaposes the moral obscenity of incest with that of civilian deaths in a war of choice, challenging viewer silence about the latter. Vital and iconoclastic, the characters push the bounds of discourse on war, love, and morality.
(Registered with WGA)
POLE STAR
Tabitha, 23, is a strip dancer at a night club. By day, she trains for the U.S. Pole Dance Federation's National Championship, the sport her passion and refuge. One day, she joins a fellow dancer to console Iraq war veterans at the naval hospital. Her deepening bond with the men helps her overcome her own scarred past.
This is a competitive dance movie with an edge, and a heart.
POLE STAR puts the chrome pole, already in local gyms around the world, at the center of a meditation on independent women, shifting attitudes of artistic taste and sexual respect, and the impact of the Iraq war.
(Registered with WGA)
JERONIMO
An Apache warrior of unknown origin befriends two activist women, one Native, one white, in today's New Mexico. They transform his consciousness, more than the other way around, while his anachronistic response to unjust facts provokes a manhunt that culminates in a surreal balloon chase over Albuquerque.
(Registered with WGA)
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Music:
"Song of the Child Brides" is about child marriage, which persists throughout the world. It is from the point of view of the girls, who sing to make light of their situation. Structured as a folk song yet arranged as a pop record, it evokes both a custom passed down centuries and one that remains a contemporary phenomenon.
Scored for voices in counterpoint, piano, cello, bass trombone, and organ, here is a raw iPhone demo of me at the digital piano:
(See full lyrics in PDF, below)
(All music copyrighted and registered)
"Song of the Child Brides" is about child marriage, which persists throughout the world. It is from the point of view of the girls, who sing to make light of their situation. Structured as a folk song yet arranged as a pop record, it evokes both a custom passed down centuries and one that remains a contemporary phenomenon.
Scored for voices in counterpoint, piano, cello, bass trombone, and organ, here is a raw iPhone demo of me at the digital piano:
(See full lyrics in PDF, below)
(All music copyrighted and registered)
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"Song of the Child Brides"
© James Moyer |
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In October of joy |
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"Hey Stars" is a nature lyric of beauty and longing. Scored for piano, horn, and voices in counterpoint, here is a raw iPhone demo of the tune:
(Lyrics in PDF)
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"Hey Stars"
© James Moyer |
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You can't
-I can
You wouldn't
-I would, I know the opinions on stripping ain't good
You can't
-I can
You wouldn't
-I would, I've learned the incentives for working ain't good
from "I Can"
"I Can" is a duet between a strip dancer and the men who patronize...and judge her. In ironic waltz time--with an ambivalent, introspective bridge--this number scores a key montage sequence in Pole Star (screenplay description, above).
I sing all the parts in this audio demo.
("I Can" © James Moyer; lyrics in PDF)
I sing all the parts in this audio demo.
("I Can" © James Moyer; lyrics in PDF)
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Bonus cover, of a song I've liked since I was a kid:
"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
I currently divide time between Los Angeles and New York, aiming to work in four distinct art forms: cinema, popular music, literary fiction, and conceptual fine art.
I received a PhD in English from Princeton University, where I also co-founded Scholars in the Schools, an organization for graduate students to share knowledge with public school teachers and students.
I have taught at Moore College of Art and Design and The Curtis Institute of Music.
My dissertation is titled The Passion of Abolitionism: How Slave Martyrdom Obscures Forced Labor. It argues that British abolitionism sees African torture as an imitation of Christ--a powerful moral framework more of martyrdom than of exploitation. The study traces literary and visual works by abolitionist and labor-conscious figures, including John and Charles Wesley, Anthony Benezet, Josiah Wedgwood, Hannah More, William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano, and William Blake.
For some samples of scholarly and theoretical work, read articles on William Blake and non-fiction cinema. I've also presented on the remarkable cinema of Yasujiro Ozu (see below) and the role of philosophy in the critique of fine art (also below):
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