Painting Cathedral Rock: Film Festivals & Awards

Part painting, performance, and film, 'Painting Cathedral Rock' is a quiet meditation on the unstable edges of vision, cinematic spectacle, and belief. A silhouetted figure washes, cleans, and paints the iconic view of Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona—a sacred Indigenous site and tourist destination—using the surrounding red earth. Ambiguous references emerge from the cinematic and spiritual to climate change, colonialism, and landscape painting, both revealing and concealing the landscape and inviting a ritualistic exploration of looking with heightened care.

Directed, edited, and performed by Mel Day
Produced with the support of the Sedona Artist Residency, Sedona Arts Center/Sedona AIR Bay Area Group
Filmed at the Gretchen Warren Interfaith Chapel, Verde Valley School, Arizona.
Video editing assistance: Justin Edwards; Cinematography and Sound: James Kelley for Shot by Ryan
Special thanks to Melissa Wyman, Carol Holyoake, Robin Treen, and Robin Lasser

2026

SUNDIAL FILM FESTIVAL, BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT AWARD
March 21 at 7pm, 2026, Cascade Theatre, Redding, California
LA INDEPENDENT WOMEN FILM AWARDS, Official Selection (Best Experimental Short)
NEW YORK SHORTS AWARDS, Nominee
BERLIN INDIE FILM FESTIVAL, Official Selection,2026
TORONTO ART FILM SPIRIT AWARDS, Nominee
LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, Official Selection (March)
CAULDRON INTERNATIONAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL, Official Selection
June 24-26th,Salt Lake City, Utah
DUMBO FILM FESTIVAL, Semi-finalist