Single-Handed Films · 1993–2002
The short films
Matt Sesow started painting in 1993 — and that same spring he started making films. Working nights and weekends while he was a software tester at IBM, he wrote, shot, acted in and edited short films under the name “Single-Handed Films,” many of them on the Fisher-Price PXL-2000, a discontinued toy camera that recorded grainy black-and-white video onto audio cassettes.
His first two, Seize the Day and The Box, placed fourth in the Washington Psychotronic film competitions of 1993 and 1994, and The Box was shown at the Washington Project for the Arts. The Washington Psychotronic Film Society — founded in 1989 by Melanie Scott, who acts in his film Is That Your Name and Number Allen Vincent? — later gave him a night of his own films at the Lucky Bar on Connecticut Avenue. His films were on his first website in 1995 and in the 1997 book Creating Internet Entertainment.
Watch
Festivals, screenings and talks
| 1993 | Several of the experimental shorts made in this period were shot on the Fisher-Price PXL-2000 — a discontinued toy camcorder that recorded low-resolution black-and-white video onto standard audio … |
| 1993 | Short films shown at Psychotronic Film Festival, Finalist, Washington, DC (1993 and 1994) |
| 1994 | Short film screened at "Superbia," Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC |
| 1994 | Short films selected for the DC Psychtronic Film Society exhibition |
| 1995 | First short film "Seize the Day" completed (1993). Created multiple experimental short films during the 1990s alongside early painting development. Films shown at WPA group exhibition and selected … |
| 1995 | ★ Launches personal website to sell paintings and films online — among the first independent artists in the world to sell original paintings on the internet. Site at members.aol.com/msesow featured … |
| 1996 | Kaleidospace Featured Artist, Los Angeles, CA |
| 1996 | Lectures at Georgetown University — "The Short Films of Sesow and the Internet" |
| 1996 | Short film "The Box" wins Best Experimental Film Award |
| 1996 | Short film screened at Washington Filmmaker Showcase, Washington, DC |
| 1996 | Wins Kaleidospace Screening Room filmmaker's contest — 1st Place, Experimental Film, Los Angeles, CA |
| 1997 | ★ Featured in "Creating Internet Entertainment" (John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-16073-3) — Matt's website published as Figure 10.13 in Chapter 10 by the founders of Kaleidospace, the first site to … |
| 1997 | Short film — "Best of PXL This VI" (PXL This Six), Finalist, Los Angeles, CA. PXL This is the long-running toy-camera film festival for work shot on the Fisher-Price PXL-2000, the $100 children's … |
| 1997 | Short film — Citadel Film Festival, San Jose, CA |
| 1998 | Short film screened at DC Showcase, Bethesda Cinema Draft House, Bethesda, MD (March 1, 1998) |
| 1998 | Short film screened at WPA/Corcoran Museum Project Space, Washington, DC |
| 2001 | Short films screened at MicroCineFest, Baltimore, MD |
| 2002 | Short films screened in "All Small," eyedrum gallery, Atlanta, GA (June 15 – July 21) |
| 2003 | Lecture — Niskayuna High School assembly, Niskayuna, NY (May); short films and paintings |
| 2004 | Lecture — "The Short Films of Sesow," Indiana University Department of Communication and Culture, Underground Film Series, Radio-Television Center Room 251, Bloomington, IN (April 10) |
Still being found. The date and photos of the Matt Sesow night at the Lucky Bar; the scorecard from the Psychotronic competition; the festival that gave The Box its “Best Experimental Film Award”; the exact date of the Fugazi concert at Fort Reno; his student films from the University of Tulsa; and more VHS tapes waiting to be transferred. If you were there, write to
sesow@sesow.com.
About the Washington Psychotronic Film Society: founded in 1989 by Melanie Scott with Carl Cephas (“Dr. Schlock”); first screenings at d.c. space; later the Lucky Bar, 1221 Connecticut Ave NW, Dr. Dremo’s, Chief Ike’s Mambo Room and other venues. Sources: Washington City Paper, 2016; washingtonpost.com, December 11, 1997; wpfs.org.
Cite this page: “The short films of Matt Sesow,” Matt Sesow Career Chronicle, history.sesow.com/films/ (updated 2026-10-16). Films © Matt Sesow. Sources: Matt Sesow’s 1990s filmography notes and scripts, the films’ title and end cards, and Matt Sesow’s own answers (October 2026). Do you have a flyer, listing or photo from a screening? sesow@sesow.com
