Van McElwee has been producing and exhibiting experimental video since 1976 and has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the American Film Institute Independent Filmmaking Award, The National Endowment for the Arts Independent Production Fund (seven time recipient), and a travel grant from the Government of India. McElwee's videotapes have been screened extensively worldwide and are distributed by The Kitchen in New York, Argos in Belgium, London Electronic Arts in the UK and Heure Exquise! in France. McElwee is Professor of Media and Video Area Head at Webster University's School of Communications, St. Louis. Confluence applies a complex editing score to images and sounds gathered by a video camera moving through crowded places. Among these scenes are a market in Cairo, a carnival in St. Louis, commuters in Tokyo, and a funeral in Varanasi. The unique edit-form of Confluence weaves these streams of movement together like notes in a musical score. Events are broken loose from their normal flow and are organized into autonomous clusters. The result is a transformation of the recorded world and its projection into a new temporal matrix. The tunnel of time becomes porous; crisscrossed by passageways and escape routes. Winner of the Director's Choice Award at the 19th Annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival.