"CIVIL WAR SURVEILLANCE POEMS (Part 1)" is the first installment in a five-part project of experimental and hybrid-form short films contemplating a second American civil war via lyrical nonfiction, mixing call-in radio, twenty years of verité footage from the filmmaker's archive, and robots. Conceptually speculating from sixteen years in the future (and a protracted civil war), the project is partly nostalgic political travelogue, partly a quest to mine the archive for what went wrong, and part prewar surveillance records, the project deconstructs and builds to a clashing ideology, culminating in an installation of sound sculpture, four-walled video and artifacts.
The Cycle refuses to lean into the same old, same old monster-movie tropes and builds the entire premise around the intellect and the history of a capable, smart female protagonist.
“And I think to myself….what a wonderful world”. Louis Armstrong sang about this notion via his classic 1967 song, an ode to witnessing elements of our life that should be but some reminders of exactly what that concluding line of each verse indicates. Now we see our contemporary realities and, just being honest, it makes a sentiment like this seem SO overtly far away….perhaps even impossible….to accept or believe could be. It sounds harsh, but again, so much of what is occurring speaks not to beauty, but bedlam.
Initially feeling like a passionate group having a bit of harmless fun with filmmaking, it leads to something sinister enough to leave a mark.
Although not canonically aromantic or asexual. the stories and personalities of these Disney princesses resonate with members of the aroace community.
YouTube surpasses Netflix but there is more to the story.
It was always people for Joe, and he ultimately found them at the end of a long, painful, yet illuminating quest for self-discovery outside of one, confident constant - his bisexuality.
