Monstark

Monstark is an award-winning filmmaker and monster artist based in Portland, Oregon. He makes handmade puppet films - living puppetry, performed on camera in real time - in the dark-fantasy and horror vein, built around what he calls the sympathetic monster: the rich emotional life, softer motive and subtle humor inside even the most fearsome creature. Monstark wrote and directed The Outsider (2024), a fifteen-minute dialogue-free adaptation of the Lovecraft story, which world-premiered at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Providence and went on to win Best in Festival at Astoria Horrorfest. The handmade film, produced in the Summer of 2024, was honored with selections, nominations, and fan art during its festival run across the United States and Canada. His short Night-Gaunts (2023), adapted from an H.P. Lovecraft poem, was made alone in a 10×15-foot shed over two weeks with no budget and a smartphone camera. It had its world premiere at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Providence and was selected for film festivals across North America, including Screamfest in Los Angeles, Another Hole in the Head in San Francisco, and Fogfest in Newfoundland. It eventually landed in the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival's "Best of 2023" collection. His first puppet film was the music video Before She Was a Moth (2021), a slimy, handmade monster-adventure labor of love created for Los Angeles surrealist punk band The Manx. Kaiju Fodder, his one-minute film bumper, used clips from this video and won Best Bumper at the Portland Horror Film Festival in 2023. And in his continued involvement in the Portland Lovecraftian film community, Monstark won the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival’s Pickman’s Apprentice artist competition in 2019, created the festival’s official poster in 2021, and joined its 30th-anniversary panel on translating Lovecraft to the screen in 2025. Monstark has also been part of award-winning 48-hour film projects. Notably: The Perfect Cup (Dir. Christopher Diego, winner of Audience Choice in the 48 Hour Film Project - Portland, OR), for which he provided puppets, puppetry and voice acting; and Higher Ground (co-produced under the Pagan Circus banner), a handmade puppet film which placed 2nd of 115 teams with Best Cinematography honors in Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Dreams 48 Hour Puppet Film Project.