About the Project

From Director John W. Yost

It would be wonderful to think that all photographed and filmed moments are honest.

My dad almost died on Thanksgiving after complications from a motorcycle accident. I tried to build a time machine out of a motorcycle, to go back and warn him before the accident happened. But time travel isn't possible.

Instead, I've been trying to film an honest moment. However, it's common knowledge that all seemingly honest filmed moments have been gathered deceitfully. So I want you to decide if deception is important, or if, by being sincere in the deception, we can use film and photography to be truly honest.

I was never destined to be a filmmaker. I didn't pick up my first 8mm camera at the age of five. However, it is still the only way I know how to communicate honestly to the world.

The Universal is an experimental narrative that uses the idea of the time traveling motorcycle to fulfill the part of me that can never go back and warn my father. Each piece is a small piece of the bigger puzzle and it is up to the audience to fill in those gaps of space and time with their own experiences.

It is my hope that each scene comes across with a certain honesty, angst, and sadness that gripped me when my father had his accident. Narrative filmmaking as catharsis and transfusion of grief for a time now lost.