Film

The Forward Momentum of Madellyn Knightley is an experimental docufiction about high school addiction and invasive poppy flowers. Madellyn is an introverted heroine who reflects on her drug trauma. Her testimony gives insight into an off-screen drug culture and charts her path extracting herself from youthful despair. 

 The non-chronological narrative and expressive visual symbolism create a volatile and hallucinatory structure. The film confronts itself using on-screen text and inhuman juxtapositions. As Madellyn softly reconsiders her past, the film simultaneously exorcizes its own narrative reliability. Madellyn’s individualism is one such questioned element. Despite the experimental tendencies, the film subtly adheres to direct observations about Madellyn’s story.  

 The initial work for this film began in 2015. In 2019, prior to production commencing, the director learned from the city of Louisville’s largest syringe exchange office and internalized the concept of harm reduction. During production, interview sessions were spontaneous to allow Madellyn to use her surroundings to speak for what was internally unutterable.