This short film originally aired at the Portland Winter Light Festival 2024 (@portlandwinterlightfestival) on February 2nd and 3rd at Hotel Lucia. Permission to use the music was granted directly from the artist ‪@Attommusic‬. If you are not familiar with his work, please go check out everything he has made. The only change to the audio I made was adding snippets of my daughter's voice starting from her first babbles to her first words. Phototaxis documents my journey into fatherhood which started with long stays in the hospital for first my daughter, then my wife. During that time I decided to prioritize making art with the goal of showing something publicly. A year and half later I achieved that goal! For the event, the film was projected onto a window space that had a custom white cloth to fit the window. This allowed audiences to see it from the street or inside. Participants who attended the event were able to interact with the film by coming inside and having their shadow cast onto the piece by standing in front of the projector. It was truly a joy to share this and watch people have fun playing with their shadow, laugh and dance. To take a part of my life that was very painful and turn it into something joyous was an amazing experience. Huge shout to all the wonderful event coordinators @portlandwinterlightfestival who helped make my first showing a huge success in my book. I was able to laugh, dance, cry, and have deep conversations with strangers. I don't know what's next, but this experience has helped me build confidence to take on larger things artistically