Burning Down the Suburbs

“On the side of a country highway, a nuclear family watches its four-wheel drive burn to the ground. What were we thinking? they seem to ask themselves. This film is an attempted update of a Dylan Thomas masterpiece, but read at a Jack in the Box picketed by P.E.T.A. “While making this one I wanted to create a ‘mini film set’, so I asked film-maker Caelum Vatnsdal to act as camera operator. As it turned out, he’d burned and filmed many toys as a child, and so became a key part in the making of this work.” Figures (modeling compound, gouache) by Shary Boyle. Music by Christine Fellows.