Trigger warning: this film contains images of a dying person.

Piano Man is a 16-minute experimental short film that explores life and death through a deeply personal lens. Inspired by the filmmaker’s experience of losing his stepfather, everyday scenes and memories are woven into a non-linear five-act structure, hinting at the unseen connections between those on screen. Instead of a traditional development process — no treatment, outline, or conventional editing stages such as rough, fine, and final cut — Piano Man was shaped organically from an archive of five terabytes of footage, allowing the narrative to emerge in the moment, guided by emotion, individuation and discovery. The result is a cinematic journey that blurs past and present, inviting viewers to reflect on the loss of a parent and the larger questions of why we are here at all.