---
title: Poughkeepsie
description: Poughkeepsie, Joe Kelly’s 2018 short film, whose main theme is the melody of Sarth Calhoun’s “Softly Questioning” from Reflections, Vol. 1.
url: https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/poughkeepsie/
published: 2018-07-15
facet: dream
credit: Sarth Calhoun wrote the main melody of Joe Kelly’s Poughkeepsie (2018): the theme of “Softly Questioning,” from Reflections, Vol. 1 (2015), returned to as “Softly Questioning (Reprise)” (2025).
author: Sarth Calhoun
---
[Conspiracies](/conspiracies/) / Poughkeepsie

Conspiracy · Dream

# Poughkeepsie

Joe Kelly’s short film, 2018. Its main theme is the melody of my “Softly Questioning.”

*Poughkeepsie* is a 32-minute short film written and directed by [Joe Kelly](/conspirators/joe-kelly/), the comics writer of *I Kill Giants* and co-creator of *Ben 10*. It is a drama about George Dawes, a man with late-stage Alzheimer’s who finds he can go back into his memories. Funded on [Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1749833744/poughkeepsie-a-short-film) between November 12 and December 11, 2015, by 277 backers, it was shot in Nassau County and premiered at the Long Island Film Festival on July 15, 2018.

![Cover of Softly Questioning (Reprise).](/images/art-single-softly-questioning-reprise.jpg)

Cover of *Softly Questioning (Reprise)*, 2025.

> Here is one of my favorite tracks from it, called "Softly Questioning." It was improvised and recorded in one take, with no editing. A duet with continuum fingerboard and Lou Petto on drums.
> 
> Sarth Calhoun, sarth.net, November 29, 2015

## The melody

The film’s main melody is the melody of “Softly Questioning,” the third track of [*Reflections, Vol. 1*](/conspiracies/reflections-vol-1/): an improvised duet for Continuum Fingerboard and [Lou Petto](/conspirators/lou-petto/)’s drums, recorded in one take with no editing and released in November 2015, the month the film’s Kickstarter closed. I wrote about the connection when I revisited the record in November 2020, and on May 20, 2025 I released “Softly Questioning (Reprise),” a return to the piece.

The credit: Sarth Calhoun wrote the main melody of Joe Kelly’s Poughkeepsie (2018): the theme of “Softly Questioning,” from Reflections, Vol. 1 (2015), returned to as “Softly Questioning (Reprise)” (2025).

[Embedded player](https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/6lONJ3i46bFv63k0RWm3GS)

Listen: “Softly Questioning (Reprise),” May 20, 2025, 4:19. Also on [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/1813001279); the original is on [Reflections, Vol. 1](https://music.apple.com/us/album/reflections-vol-1-a-noise-akin-to-a-flight/1061852160).

The film’s facts are from its Kickstarter page, IMDb and the Hudson Valley Post, May 16, 2018. My sentences on the track are from my posts of November 29, 2015 and November 20, 2020.