“Paper Shadows” is a surrealist, nonlinear satire about the creative & emotional angst shared by an elderly black man and a young white female art student.

Shot on 35mm black and white film using anamorphic optics for the 2:35.1 aspect ratio, the central characters represent the racial, class, gendered, and generational gaps and complexities in society. The film, through image and sound manipulation, explores ideas and identity that are rarely explored and contrasted in mainstream narrative films. The characters indulge in a Walter Mitty type fantasy involving a grant fellowship competition, mysticism and

espionage intrigue within the fictional philanthropic organization that effects both characters as they unite to oppose and combat.

Banks’ high school photo/film students work with him on Paper Shadows, garnering first-hand experience in the film production process from shooting, lighting and sound recording to the traditional post production of cutting and splicing on a flatbed editing machine and upright moviola.