
At its root, to document something is simply to record it. But every act of recording involves a series of choices about what information is captured, how it is framed, what is shared and what is omitted, and perhaps most importantly, what kind of truth it is meant to carry. The works in Root to Roam might each be understood as a form of subjective documentary, whether or not they wear that label. What filmmakers Christian Shepherd, Taj Rauch, Andy Price, Marissa Losoya, Brandon Aquino Straus, and David Scott Kessler share is less a genre than a method: a commitment to recording what is difficult to quantify, and to finding the form that best holds the particular truth they are after. Once an observation, a memory, or a history lodges itself in the psyche, it has a way of spreading outward until every surface reflects it back. These films follow that branching logic, each one tracing a different way that what we have witnessed, believed, or inherited can quietly reorganize our perception of the world around us.
May 14, 2026
Films will be screened twice, in the following order:
Beyond Failure - Marissa Losoya
Flora After - Brandon Aquino Straus
Cryptomeria - Andy Davis
The Peasants Shouldn't Know - David Scott Kessler
XXVIII - Christian Shepherd
Afterworlds - Taj Rauch

AUTOMAT Collective
Suite 105, Crane Arts Building
1400 N. American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19125
Gallery Hours:
Saturdays 12-5pm and by appointment
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Contact Us:
automatcollective(at)gmail(dot)com
AUTOMAT takes part in Second Thursdays. On the second Thursday of each month, AUTOMAT hosts opening receptions and programming in its gallery space within the Crane Arts Building.
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