The Eden Project

Concept/Direction/Editing: Paul Christiano

Cinematography: Christopher Perricelli

Illustrator: Jennifer Carroll Christiano

Actors: Georgia Mae Pauley, Nickolas Christiano

Music: Handel ("Lascia Ch'io Pianga")

Vocalist: Tuva Semmingsen

Shot in Pratt/Wayne Woods, Wayne, IL, October 2010.

***

That the urge to destroy trumps the desire to love is a pressing intuition I maintain based on extensive subjective experience. I suppose it all started back in 3rd Grade when my very first girlfriend opted to express her staggering affection for me by locking me in her basement crawlspace. Girls/Women have proven to be a lethal commodity ever since. Growing up, I was an easy target for emotional sadists, to the point that hating people without just cause appeared to be endemic to all children. I’m convinced these destructive impulses survive adulthood in exceedingly cunning and sophisticated forms, often operating completely below awareness and in direct opposition to a person’s conscious intent. When I was young, I incessantly asked myself why girls [in particular] reveled in hurting my feelings when all I did was adore them, but am inclined all these years later to blame myself. Girls/Women who are held to heavenly standards by poetry-spouting admirers for no other reason than being born beautiful (through no fault of their own) are at a disadvantage. Those who mistakenly consider faces a window to the soul draw very reductive conclusions about the people they adore, bypassing their flawed complexity in favor of ideals evoked entirely by distant, non-interactive gazing. To be utterly disregarded in this way is insulting. Tragically, the girls I admired were just as incapable of articulating why they were so damn angry at me as I was of understanding what I did to offend them. I’m not sure full-fledged adults are any better equipped to transcend these delusions, which is why I find loving people so incredibly dangerous. "Eden" depicts the killer instinct unleashed when love preempts genuine knowing.