AMERICA IN QUARANTINE

2020-2022

"America in Quarantine" are a series of 10 minutes experimental documentaries/art films that explore the ongoing social, political and ecological issues heightened during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic.

MANHATTAN IN QUARANTINE

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PHILADELPHIA IN QUARANTINE

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SEATTLE IN QUARANTINE

WASHINGTON, D.C. IN QUARANTINE

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PORTLAND IN QUARANTINE

CELILO FALLS IN QUARANTINE

EL PUEBLO DE LOS ÁNGELES EN CUARENTENA

HONOLULU IN QUARANTINE

THE BRONX IN QUARANTINE

THE BRONX IN QUARANTINE

2022

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2022. English,

Early in the American SARS-COV-2 outbreak, the South Bronx was one of the hardest hit parts of the country. For those that survived, the lockdown equated to an intensified domestic existence.

Shot March 1, 2020-March 1, 2022

THE DALLES IN QUARANTINE

2021

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2021. English, Chinookan

Google’s massive data center sit adjacent to the Columbia River, exploiting the hydropower of the Dalles Dam and using the water to cool the hardware. Part of the Lewis and Clark Trail, this Western town shows signs of the pioneer past and repurposed for new forms of commerce.

Shot on April 24, 2021

EL PUEBLO DE LOS ÁNGELES EN CUARENTENA

2021

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2021. English.

On October 24, 1871, a group of citizens began killing Chinese in the neighborhood of El Pueblo de los ‘Angeles. Motivated by the death of a white man, a mob of Angelinos attacked, robbed and massacred between 17 and 20 Chinese immigrants. Five blocks from the plaque of this event there is a monument, written in the sidewalk, of the assaults by the FBI, against Japanese Americans. Above the sidewalk monument are posters, begging to stop the attacks against Asian Americans.

Shot on July 1, 2021

HONOLULU IN QUARANTINE

2021

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2021. Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, English.

The corporate coup d’etat ended the only monarchic rule within the United States on January 17, 1893. Sugar barons pressured the monarchy to reverse the laws to protect the native Hawaiians. Within a half-century, the music from the island paradise captured the imaginations of mainland Americans who flocked to distant state for the exotic romance that is tourism.

Shot May 25, 2021

WASHINGTON D.C. IN QUARANTINE

2021

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2021. English.

On January 6, 2020 Congress met to confirm President-elect Joseph R. Biden. Concomitantly, former President Donald J. Trump held a rally with 30,000 people. Trump's speech concluded in the chant, 'Stop the Steal.' This video draws together footage from 500 cell phone recordings.

Shot January 6, 2020

PHILADELPHIA IN QUARANTINE

2021

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2021. English.

The museums closed, the visitor centers closed, the mint closed. Philadelphia’s Federal past re-emerged as a new fight for the future.

This is a vignette of Philadelphia during the 2020, SARS-COV-2 pandemic.

Shot September 3, 2020.

CELILO FALLS IN QUARANTINE

2021

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2021. English, Chinookan.

Celilo Falls is the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America, the site of a traditional fishery on the Columbia River. For 15,000 years, the cascading waters sustained the lives of many indigenous tribes. In 1957, the completion of the Dalles Dam–a massive hydroelectric generator–inundated the falls, displaced most of the families that subsisted at the site and obstructed the migrating salmon, white sturgeon and other anadromous fish. Today, only a few families reside at what is now a man-made lake.

Shot from Horsethief Butte, an outcropping of basalt, we see the petroglyphs and pictographs created by indigenous people who once came here, communing here above the tumbling waters. The butte was carved out by the glacial activity of the last ice age, and stands in defiance to the signature winds wailing up the Columbia Gorge.

This is a vignette of Celilo Falls during the 2020, SARS-COV-2 pandemic.

Shot September 8, 2020.

Read Chinook Jargon dictionary

SEATTLE IN QUARANTINE

2021

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2021

The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, was the occupation in and around Cal Anderson Park in Seattle. The occupation was a counter-response to the police reaction of protests against police violence and brutality. This film visits the CHAZ during the historic Pacific Northwest wildfires, which covered the city in smoke.

This is a vignette of Seattle during the 2020, SARS-COV-2 pandemic.

Shot September 14-19, 2020.

PORTLAND IN QUARANTINE

2020

6k digital video, 10 mins, 2020

The election of President Trump sparked civil unrest in Portland, OR. Throughout his divisive four years in office, citizens took to the streets in defense of civil society and human rights. These public demonstrations came to a tipping point with the murder of George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police. Outraged by ongoing police impunity, concatenated with cabin fever from lock-down orders aimed to combat the global pandemic, protest devolved into violence, including attacks at federal property, which the White House used as an excuse to deploy a cocktail of federal forces to the City. Ostensibly to keep the peace, the federal officers startled mainstream America by using tactics more frequently seen under military dictatorships.

While the pandemic seemed to heighten tensions, it was the wildfires that brought the protests to a halt. A blanket of smoke over the Pacific Northwest registered the worst air quality on earth. The fires displaced 500,000 inhabitants around Portland.

This is a vignette of Portland during the 2020, SARS-COV-2 pandemic.

Shot September 4-6, 2020.

MANHATTAN IN QUARANTINE

2020

6k digital video, color, 10 minutes, 2020

Manhattan is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. In 2020, the novel corona virus forced many countries and cities to shutdown for fear of spreading the contagion. Many cities implemented social distancing protocols and in some cases, quarantine. New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo, directed the closure of all non-essential business while many residents of New York City voluntarily left to second homes or vacation destinations. As with the cholera epidemics of the 19th Century, this behavior led to further spreading of the pathogen.

The viral exposed the many under-lying ails of the city, including sanitation, socioeconomic inequity, and systematic racism. The previous years of repeated videos showing violence by police against people of color fomented with the horizontal lynching of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Protest for immediate culpability and systematic change paralleled the frustrations of the exploitation of capital and possession, manifesting in riots across the city.

This is a vignette of Midtown Manhattan during the 2020, SARS-COV-2 pandemic.

Shot June 14, 2020.