The Chumash Indians, who inhabited the Southern California coastal region, believed that there were three worlds: the world which we inhabit as well as the one above and below us. The world above was the sky and the home of the eagle, sun, moon and the supernatural; the middle world, where humans reside, was held in place by a giant serpent which sometimes moved and caused earthquakes; and the lower world, the water world, was the home of darkness and danger, and was composed of the urine of the many frogs who lived in it. Metamorphosis is loosely based on this cosmology and how man interacts with it.

Metamorphosis was commissioned by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, with the generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, for the “Guest of Honor Pavilion at the Feria Internacional de Libros (Guadalajara International Book Fair). The City of Los Angeles was the invited guest to the book fair, and this film was exhibited in the pavilion, devoted to Los Angeles. The Pavilion was designed by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, Inc. and various filmmakers were invited to show films about Los Angeles. Videos were projected onto large-scale balloons which floated above.