Pause of the Clock

Now available to stream on Vimeo!

On November 1, 1994 I finished writing the first draft of a screenplay called “Pause of the Clock.” I was a 19-year-old film student at Columbia College in Chicago. I showed the screenplay to some faculty advisors and friends, then started fundraising and assembling a cast and crew. In January 1995, using 16mm film equipment from various colleges and rental houses, we started shooting the film in Colorado. Filming would continue in Chicago, in fits and starts, over the next year. Finally on May 19, 1996 we shot the last scene.

And then, basically, the film sat in my closet for the next 18 years. Paused.

Until now.

Pause of the Clock is a film about friendship, secrets, and the power of stories. The year is 1995. College roommates Dylan and Rob are making a movie called “Crueler than Truth” with a group of their friends in Colorado and Chicago. During the shoot, Dylan stumbles upon Rob’s diary and secretly begins reading it. His unsettling discoveries about who Rob really is, combined with his own hidden attraction towards him, gradually mix with the “film within the film” to create a fragmented reality.

Playing out on the boundary between the real and the imagined, Pause of the Clock includes a soundtrack featuring music by Kill Hannah, Royale, and Steven Pate. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, it was completed in 2015 in time for the 20th anniversary of the start of production. (Browse my posts about it).

The film premiered on November 7, 2015 at the 38th Denver International Film Festival. Its Chicago premiere was at the Gene Siskel Film Center on October 3, 2016.

Check out some film stills, behind the scenes photos, and poster images or download the press kit.

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