Director’s Cut - Rod Lathim

“Director’s Cut”

Vintage 35mm film reel, vintage wooden mold, beaded neon

21” T x 20” W x 7” D

“Director’s Cut” is a meditation on creativity, memory, and the art of letting go. The piece began with a vintage 35mm film reel — a relic of storytelling, rhythm, and motion. I mounted it on an old wooden mold whose round openings mirror the reel’s perforations, echoing the repetition and precision of film itself. From within the circle, two free-form shapes of clear, beaded neon emerge, overlapping and spiraling outward. The beads of light travel through the glass like tiny frames of film in motion, while black lines along the glass hint at sprocket holes in film. The beading neon reimagines cinema as kinetic light.

For me, “Director’s Cut” is both a celebration and a critique — a reflection on the tension between indulgence and discipline in art. In film, the director’s cut often keeps the moments that should have been trimmed, the darlings too dear to discard. I see it as a metaphor for the creative process itself — the constant dance between editing and expression, between what we hold onto and what we must let go.