F Movie

“An homage to ‘Sesame Street,’ it was made with a brief loop of Super 8 footage shot across the Strait of Juan de Fuca – just 14 miles from Victoria to the Washington State coast and Bangor (the world’s largest nuclear submarine base and a primary Cold War target). “This hilltop view was many things to us while growing up: a place to peer out at the dark with a date, tongue-tied; a place to see the first flash of a long expected nuclear strike; a place to almost hear the bombs dropping on far-off Pacific villages; and up in the sky, F’s dancing. “Note: In theatres the rhythmic looping employed in this work produces a strobing effect, somewhat like an atomic detonation on the horizon. Although I would never set out to antagonize my audience, it is nevertheless moving to see, from above in the projectionist’s booth, some audience members reach to protect their eyes, their raised arms silhouetted in the pulsating room.” Music by Christine Fellows. (Bombs dropped by U.S. Air Force on Vietnam, 1967.)