At the small creative agency, Broomstick Engine, Chad Clendinen uses his cinematic wizardry to help companies tell their stories and inspire action. Clendinen spent years making films, specializing in design, animation, and production in over 17 countries. He was the cinematic director at Invisible Children, where he helped create the overnight viral sensation Kony 2012 (Mountainfilm 2012) and is known as “The Visual Magician” at Broomstick Engine. Clendinen is the director of A Field Guide to Losing Your Friends (Mountainfilm 2017) and The Bitter Root (Mountainfilm 2021).

Chad Clendinen was inspired to adapt Tyler Dunning’s essay “A Field Guide to Losing Your Friends” into a short film after he attended one of Tyler’s book readings in San Diego. The subject matter, and visual possibilities, resonated with Chad and struck him as a personal film project that would also resonate with others while offering some reprieve to those dealing with grief, loss, loneliness, and mental unwellness. Chad and Tyler then set forth to create the film together, from pre-production to post, on a shoestring budget. The result was a deep friendship between the two, a foray into the film festival circuit, and a film that continues to remind its viewers that, at our seemingly darkest times, we are never alone on our journeys back to wellness.

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