Item 2905 - O'er the Land

Video

A meditation on the milieu of elevated threat which addresses national identity, gun culture, wilderness, consumption, patriotism and the possibility of personal transcendence. Of particular interest are the ways Americans have come to understand freedom and the increasingly technological reiterations of manifest destiny. While channeling our national psyche, the film is interrupted by the story of Col. William Rankin who in 1959, was forced to eject from his F8U fighter jet at 48,000 feet without a pressure suit, only to get trapped for 45 minutes in the up and down drafts of a massive thunderstorm. Remarkably, he survived. Rankin's story represents a non-material, metaphysical kind of freedom. He was vomited up by his own jet, an American icon of progress and strength, but violent purging does not necessarily lead to reassessment or redirection. This film is concerned with the sudden, simple, thorough ways that events can separate us from the system of things, and place us in a kind of limbo. Like when we fall. Or cross a border. Or get shot. Or saved. The film forces together culturally acceptable icons of heroic national tradition with the suggestion of unacceptable historical consequences, so that seemingly benign locations become zones of moral angst. "With the excuse of freedom, we lose so many things." - Silvio Barile

• English

I would prefer to screen this piece as a 16mm film. If that is not possible, my second choice would be Beta SP or DVCAM. OVNI may include textual or still photo information on the web, but not digitized video clips. The preview DVD is taken from a 16mm workprint, not the final print. But the soundtrack is the finished mix.

• Catalan

• Latin