Alongside my drag queen documentary Out on Stage, this project was also part of my documentary class I took sophomore year. I started this film at a time when I felt completely lost about how to use my time and was often stuck thinking about the idea of ending time itself—feeling like I had no control. I began thinking more and more about the concept of time, and started to wonder: who would be the closest person to time?

That’s how I came up with the idea of interviewing clockmakers and clock repair technicians. The process wasn’t easy—there were multiple rejections and a lot of ghosting—but eventually it all worked out.

When I first envisioned this documentary, it was going to be solely about him, the clockmaker I interviewed. My plan was to cut and paste his answers together without including any of my questions. That’s why I wasn’t mic’d up, and why my voice sounds so faint compared to his. But as I started to edit the footage, I realized something: the questions I had asked him weren’t just for him—they were a reflection of what I was going through at the time.

I still have the original doc where I brainstormed the film. These were some of the main questions I had written down:

“What would you say to people who are stuck in the past—missing moments or memories they can never recreate?”
“What would you say to someone who wants their time to end because they’re going through something hard?”

During the interview, he shared that the only time that really exists is now. That the most important moment is this very moment. Live in the moment.

Thinking about moments, memories, time—how we deal with the past and how we carry it with us—this film reminded me just how precious time is. It’s something I still remind myself to hold close.