Does Anyone Ever Really Quit? (2011)

Shot at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 2003, the obsessive behavior of Joaquin the black bear was reminscent of a film that impressed me as a young student… Once upon a time, the University of Bridgeport had an interesting film program with instructors such as George Morris (credited in Slackers) and video artist, Shalom Gorewitz. The film that impressed me was made by film students at that university, and was the first structuralist film that I remember being exposed to. This particular student film was a locked-down shot of an obsessive polar bear who struck his head against the cement wall of his pen every time he cycled by it. The audio in the film was silent except for the loud crashing sound of a cymbal at the moment of bear-impact... I don't know what ever happened to that film, those film students, or the polar bear, but the memory has stayed with me.