O’er the Land
Early Monthly Segments is pleased to present American artist Deborah Stratman’s 2009 reflection on the state of her nation, O’er the Land. Her film hinges on the account of 48,000 foot descent of pilot Col. William Rankin who was forced to eject himself from his F8U fighter jet during a 1959 test flight. Storm buffeted, without a pressurized flight suit, held aloft in the air currents for a seeming eternity, Rankin miraculously survived to tell the tale.
50 years later Stratman shows us an America still at war and arguably in free fall, obsessed with its permeable borders, bodies and the technologies of destruction. Including documentation of border guards and civil war reenactors, football players and flamethrowers, the film deftly depicts the spectacular intersection of landscape and leisure with masculinity, militarism and manifest destiny.
Programme:
Revival, Don Shebib, 1965, Canada, 16mm, 12 min
O’er the Land, Deborah Stratman, 2008, USA, 16mm, 52 min
@ Gladstone Hotel, Art Bar | 1214 Queen St West
Monday August 19, 2013 | 8:00 PM screening | $5-10 suggested donation
O’er the Land
O’er the Land
O’er the Land
Next Up: EMS #55 = September 30