Reverse Shadow
8m 4s
Directed by Janie Geiser • Documentary • 2019 • 8 minutes
Rivers run red, planes hover above the waters, ships travel in darkness, and towers loom and topple. Disaster seems imminent as the hunters prepare to shoot. The body is a soft target.
Reverse Shadow draws on a range of sources, from a child’s target practice game to brochures of WW2 warplanes, medical books, panoramic photographs, and iPhone videos shot from an airplane seat. The sound collage includes, among other sources, recordings of Cold War shortwave "numbers stations" and an Edison recording of the Rip Van Winkle story. From the Time, A Substance series.
"I had a recurring dream that I was walking in the woods and a hunter mistook me for a bird. I could hear him moving through the forest. I always woke up before the gun was fired, but that feeling of apprehension would stay with me throughout the day. Lately, even without dreaming this dream, that apprehension is present." —Janie Geiser