Mixtape for Stom Sogo doesn’t feel like a documentary trying to explain its subject. It feels more like someone sitting with unresolved thoughts and letting them unfold. Directed by Adrian Goycoolea, the film is framed around a response to the last email he received from his friend Stom Sogo before he died. This is not a biography or a structured story. It’s a conversation with someone who isn’t there anymore, full of hesitation, memories, and questions that don’t get answered.
The voiceover feels raw and personal, like Goycoolea is thinking out loud rather than explaining anything to us. He questions himself and his memories, and that uncertainty stays present throughout the film. Instead of defining Sogo, the film lets him appear in fragments. Sometimes those fragments feel beautiful, sometimes uncomfortable, and occasionally overwhelming. The film does not try to resolve those contradictions, and that is what makes it feel honest and intimate, inviting the viewer to sit with those feelings.
The documentary relies on more than just Sogo’s own footage. It draws from personal archives, interviews, and memory, assembling a collage of his art and presence. His films appear alongside reflections from people who knew him, creating multiple ways of seeing him rather than one fixed image. Contributors include Jonas Mekas, Bruce McClure, Raha Raissnia, Julius Ziz, Ed Halter, Andy Lampert, and members of Sogo’s family. Together, these voices build a portrait that feels restless and unresolved rather than complete, showing both his achievements and his struggles.
Sogo first arrived at Anthology Film Archives in the mid-1990s and quickly became part of New York’s underground film scene. He moved easily between the art world and the club scene, and friends remember him as open and lyrical in how he saw and experienced the world. The film highlights how that openness could be both exciting and risky. It explores his drug use and mental health struggles as part of his life, showing how they shaped the intensity, vulnerability, and honesty in his films.
His experimental films are central to the documentary. Shot mainly on Super 8mm and edited directly in camera, his images are short, constantly moving bursts that rarely linger. They capture both the city around him and his perspective within it. The rapid edits, layered visuals, and flickering light create a rhythm that feels almost physical. Watching his work can be intense, and knowing he had epilepsy adds another layer of awareness. The films feel like an extension of him, a space where his experiences, emotions, and perceptions are concentrated and unfiltered, allowing viewers to feel close to his process.
The documentary also explores the personal side of Sogo’s life. It touches on his complicated relationship with his father, his breakups, and the ways he sometimes pulled away from friends. His family appears as witnesses to his struggles, giving insight into the depression he experienced and how it affected his daily life. These moments help show how his talent and vulnerability were inseparable from who he was and how he created his films.
What makes Mixtape for Stom Sogo compelling is its balance of admiration and reflection. Friends, collaborators, and family sometimes share conflicting memories, and that tension reflects who Sogo was. He could be lyrical and open, romantic and cynical, generous and distant. The film keeps those tensions, giving a sense of him without simplifying. Including friends and family shows the person behind the creative brilliance. It captures Sogo’s fragility, intensity, and vulnerability, giving a clear sense of him through his work and leaving a lasting impression of both the artist and the human being behind it.
The 2026 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival, which is part of the New Jersey Film Festival, will be taking place on Saturday, February 21 and Sunday, February 22, 2026. The 3 film programs will be Online for 24 Hours on their show dates and there will be 2 In-Person screenings at 5PM or 7 PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. Mixtape for Stom Sogo will be screening on Sunday, February 22! For more info and to buy tickets go here: https://watch.eventive.org/newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2026
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