COMMUNION LOS ANGELES American Independents

A dystopian vision of the present, this experimental documentary uses poetic time-lapse photography to create an indistinguishable swell of half-audible monologues, radio frequencies and voicemails. This technique builds a decidedly unsettling distance, even as the rhythms of reoccurring highway vistas, flickering street signs, and neon-lit strip malls beckon you to fall under its trance. Recalling Mathew Barney’s seminal works, here the automobile is monolith, American’s supreme icon, through which all infrastructures and humans flow. Familiar wide shots of cluttered freeways are contrasted with desolate underpasses overgrown with weeds, while street lamp banners promoting the latest museum exhibition fill the screen forcing the viewer to confront what is frequently ignored. – Caleb Hammond