Sable Elyse Smith's How We Tell Stories to Children is a single channel video that combines found footage, music clips, and audio of the artist reading with video clips of her father recording himself from prison. Focal points and significant moments seem to always occur just offscreen, or quickly flash away. We are given glimpses of a young man running, of city streets flying past from out a car window, but the video centers on clips of her father recounting events in their shared past, talking into the camera like we are witnessing one half of a conversation, or silently listening to music. At times, it is a personal portrait from loved one to loved one, as when he refers to the artist as “daughter." The viewer is granted access into these private moments in the cell while his story, his message for his daughter feels just out of reach, but the camera rolls on.
