Screening 2

O’er the Land
2009, 16 mm, colour, sound, 52 mins

Optimism
2018, Super 8, colour, sound, 15 mins

In O’er the Land, the story of Colonel William Rankin—the survivor of a free fall from 48,000 feet and trapped for forty-five minutes without a pressurized suit in the air currents of a huge thunderstorm—is superimposed on iconic representations of American identity. Battle reenactments, college football matches, and days at the shooting range serve to question the firearm culture, the relationship to an untamed nature, to consumerism, patriotism, and the possibility of personal transcendence. In Optimism, cancan dancers, curlers, ore smelters, and former town officials come together to form the portrait of Dawson City, a town in the Canadian Yukon with a long history of mining and greed.