The Backside of God is an experimental documentary that explores the life and death of the filmmaker's late uncle, Doug Seidel. Doug was a devout Christian and pastor from rural Pennsylvania. The film ruminates on the intersection of familial, religious, and queer identity. The piece centers on the tensions between the artist’s queer identity and Uncle’s rejection of his. Can you love someone who ultimately believes your existence is immoral?

Director Bio:

Hogan Seidel is an artist working with the analog film and sculpture working in the traditions of experimental film, found footage, photochemical abstraction, direct animation, and collage. Their work has been screened at festivals such as Alchemy, Analogica, Indie Grits, ULTRA Cinema, Revolutions Per Minute, Artifact, Fracto Experimental, and PRISME. 

Seidel teaches analog and interactive media as affiliated faculty at Emerson College and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. They are currently at the Harvard Graduate School of Education researching arts education and the impacts of classism and other oppressive structures in U.S. higher education.