Swamp Horror
Blues
2012 | video | 27 minutes | dialogue
Swamp Horror Blues (Le Corbusiers Nightmare) is an experimental video comedy.
Inspired by American sit-com, and set in a recently renovated, formerly modernist suburb of Amsterdam (home to a large part of Amsterdam's Surinamese and Ghanaian population),
the video is about a family who discover consumer items in their household transform into clay. Conflict arises over the way, in which the crisis should be dealt with, as family members begin to form little balls out of hitherto useful objects. When even the cat turns into clay, they fear the worst for themselves and realise, they might become social outcasts.
With the local Dutch cast, we focussed on quick delivery of lines in English, and tried to imitate particular American intonations, especially inspired by Jerry Seinfeld.
Every aspect of the video is out of balance in this exploration of forms, which could be understood
as a comment on the malleability of society, at the fault line between ideologies about urban planning and realities on the ground.
