An Alternate Pond
A man takes his boat out on a pond. A conversation with a fish becomes a meditation on the lives we didn't live. Surreal imagery blurs the line between waking and dream as the film explores regret, aging, and the search for peace within the only life we have.
150 word Synopsis An Alternate Pond is a meditation on aging, regret, and the weight of the lives we didn't choose. As a man fishes on a quiet pond, a voiceover addressed to a fish beneath the surface begins to unspool. He envies the simplicity of its existence, one reduced to a single choice: to bite or not. He longs for that simplicity, to be free of the consequences of choices, the weight of regret. The film drifts between waking and dream, tracing the turbulence of a mind that cannot stop circling its own past. There is a pull toward an alternate pond, a different life, one in which he is still himself but somehow someone else. The film asks whether it's possible to stop that wandering and simply be present, whether stillness can be found only in accepting that there is one pond, and it is this one.
C. Thomas Lewis is a filmmaker, photographer, installation artist, and Teaching Professor at Indiana University's Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, where he directs the Media Arts and Science program in Indianapolis. He holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and a BFA from the University of the Arts, and brings over 30 years of experience spanning experimental film, fine art photography, and documentary production. His creative work explores themes of memory, identity, and the human condition through surreal imagery and poetic visual language, as seen in his experimental short film An Alternate Pond. Lewis has produced documentary and installation work across international contexts, including healthcare partnerships in Guyana and cultural preservation projects in Greece, and his commercial practice includes extensive work in healthcare filmmaking. A photographer since childhood, he maintains an active fine art photography practice alongside his moving image work, and whether in the gallery, the classroom, or the field, pursues a deeply intentional vision rooted in both artistic rigor and human connection.