In the finest tradition of MAD Magazine, this film uses found footage to shine a most unflattering light on American political culture. Gonzo director duo Soda Jerk employs film, television, and internet clips to tell the story of the US from 2016 to 2021; cleverly combining the material, they create a fictional neighborhood torn apart by political division, wild rhetoric, and loony conspiracies.
From Police Academy to The ‘Burbs, Wayne’s World to Stranger Things, pop culture classics are fused into wacky, wide-ranging satire. The picture Soda Jerk paints is, of course, dismaying, but the political grotesquerie is leavened with a strong dose of stoner humor. The directors have a sharp sense of the bizarre, and their dark-toned facetiousness is perfect for the years portrayed: from Trump vs. Hillary through the pandemic and on to the triumph of “corporate liberalism,” absurdity is the watchword, and what better approach to recent American history could there be?
September 30 & October 2: Q&A with directors Soda Jerk
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Credits
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Soda Jerk is a filmmaking duo with an interest in articulating film samples into a rogue documentary impulse. Forming in Sydney in 2002, the duo has been New York-based since 2012. They have collaborated on projects with cyberfeminist collective VNS Matrix and electronic music group The Avalanches. Their latest feature, Hello Dankness (2023) was nominated for the Panorama Audience Award at Berlin International. The Guardian named the “dizzyingly ambitious satirical work” one of the best Australian movies of the decade.
Filmography: Hollywood Burn (2006); Terror Nullius (2018)
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