Jarrod Whaley is a Chattanooga, TN filmmaker who has, to this point, worked primarily with digital video. Whaley graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a double-major B.A. in English and French. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Shaking Ray Levi Society, a non-profit arts organization bringing non-traditional creative work (such as improvised music, video, film, and performance arts) to Chattanooga, TN and elsewhere for 20 years. He is also an appointed member of the Chattanooga Film Commission.

He has produced numerous short films, one feature-length silent film, is in the midst of producing a neverending (or at least open-ended) film released in weekly installments on this web site, and is gearing up to shoot a second feature--this time with lots of sound in the mix.

To learn more or to inquire about a possible artist residency or to propose a filmmaking workshop at your school or agency, please contact Jarrod Whaley here.

"If you have a little bit of trouble figuring out Jarrod Whaley’s films, it’s to be expected. Whaley doesn’t work within a standardized structure the way, say, 99 percent of filmmakers do. 'Maybe this sounds kind of cheesy and New-Agey or something, but I guess I want to put people in a kind of introspective trance,' says Whaley. 'I want to see if I can strip away the mundanities of everyday life and delve into my subconscious, with the hope that doing so will maybe help others do the same. There are a lot of weird and interesting things buried beneath the surface of conscious thought, and there’s a lot that can be learned about both oneself and the universe as a whole in there.'" --Bill Colrus interviews Jarrod Whaley about The Amaranth for the Chattanooga Pulse: "His Introspective Trance"

"Whaley is like a poet or painter, toiling alone in his dim apartment, thoroughly documenting his discoveries, developing a consistent style—and a consistent substance—which requires little more than the portable apparatus of a MiniDV camera and a healthy human body...The individualism so dutifully represented by the subject matter and mise-en-scene of Whaley's work is akin to that which saturates Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc...Whaley's approach may as well be considered a logical and technological heir of Polanski's work in The Tenant: without a crew, Whaley is able to achieve the same effect of oppressive isolation. Moreover, Whaley's work seems to emanate from a pungently real solitude, a quality that would be jeopardized by the presence of extraneous personnel amassed behind the camera. Because of this sincerity or candor, Whaley has more legitimate and relevant affinity with Polanski than does, say, Darren Aronofsky...By serially casting himself in the role of the immured individual—in front of as well as behind the camera—Whaley risks accusations of self-fetishism. My accusation is equally severe: he is a pioneer." --Alejandro Adams, speaking of Whaley's web-hosted movies in his essay "Preliminary Notes on Web-hosted Cinema" at braintrustdv.com

"Whaley's Short Change [is] ... alternately amusing and disturbing...It is an indication of the film's intriguing shifts in tone that it contains both a scathing parody of local car commercials and the most disconcerting scene ever to feature someone eating cereal." --Aaron Mesh reviews Short Change for the Chattanooga Pulse. January 14-21 2004 Edition.