Thin ice
a scratch film by Sam Heydt
The world, no longer in focus, has succumbed to a blur of movement amidst the obscurity of media images and sequence of schizophrenic moments. Yet illusion won’t save us from reality, even as the sustained narrative of tabloids becomes history and the myth of progress continues to perpetuate violence and inequality. Globalization has moved forward unevenly and no one can say where this "New Frontier" is taking us. Our time is marked by deindustrialization and the exploitation of cheap labor, climate change and clean coal, nationalism and a refugee crisis. Yet, these portents are drowned out by the white noise of the media, which lure us in with the empty promises it proposes for the future it truncates.
Divorced from Reality
a scratch film by Sam Heydt
How will history judge us? As desertification and extreme weather patterns delimitates habitable and uninhabitable zones, it is clear that the earth can’t eternally withstand the strain of the industrialized world. Over the past several centuries, humanity has raked the land of its resources, threatening the balance of the natural world. The nature of the earnings that define late capitalism have incidentally raped us of nature itself. In the space of post-history, all grand narratives dissipate, as we back sedated by the flickering screen and the false promises it proposes for the future it truncates.
Making america great again
a scratch film by Sam Heydt
Contemporary cultural narratives speak to our common aspirations, fears, and perplexities. Ritually retold, these stories reinforce a constructed history and sustained narrative that we collectively buy into. There is no reality outside representation. Subconsciously we are structured by this repertoire of codes and grammar of meaning. The ideological contradiction at the heart of this myth is the delusion underpinning it. The simulacrum does not hide the truth, but rather reveals its absence. The medium has swallowed the message, while the multi-medium proliferated it in all directions. The poverty of experience at the hands of our hyper-accelerated society brings into question the politics of memory. How do we come to understand ourselves if not in relation to our past, our history, our heritage? If selfhood is built on an accumulation of the memories what happens when they are diluted by the countless narratives flickering on screen? These are not alternative facts: racism, sexism, bigotry and hatred have no place in our country. Banning Muslims, tearing apart immigrant families, gutting regulation, questioning the integrity of the press, the validity of climate change, denying millions the right to health care - this isn’t draining the swamp any more than corporate tax breaks are leveling the playing field.
LUNAR
a scratch film by Sam Heydt
Images can only be read as vague representations of the real or phantasmagorical. The medium of capturing remains true to its complicit relationship with truth. Life is a series of flickering impressions most of which go unregistered.
BORN IN YOUR BED
a scratch film by Sam Heydt
Contemporary cultural narratives speak to our common aspirations, fears, and perplexities. Ritually retold, these stories reinforce a constructed history and sustained narrative that we collectively buy into. There is no reality outside representation. Subconsciously we are structured by this repertoire of codes and grammar of meaning. The ideological contradiction at the heart of this myth is the delusion underpinning it. The simulacrum does not hide the truth, but rather reveals its absence. The medium has swallowed the message, while the multi-medium proliferated it in all directions. The poverty of experience at the hands of our hyper-accelerated society brings into question the politics of memory. How do we come to understand ourselves if not in relation to our past, our history, our heritage? If selfhood is built on an accumulation of the memories what happens when they are diluted by the countless narratives flickering on screen? These are not alternative facts: racism, sexism, bigotry and hatred have no place in our country. Banning Muslims, tearing apart immigrant families, gutting regulation, questioning the integrity of the press, the validity of climate change, denying millions the right to health care - this isn’t draining the swamp any more than corporate tax breaks are leveling the playing field.
FILM STILLS
