the chroniclers
THESE THINKERS’ NARRATIVES GRIPPED EMOTIONS AND MOVED IDEOLOGICAL MOUNTAINS, DOCUMENTING THE DAILY TRIBULATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, THE QUEER SUBCULTURES OF THE ARAB WORLD, AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN THE NIGER DELTA. WHILE ONE DEPLOYED OUTLANDISH VERSE TO CHALLENGE AN UNJUST GERMAN STATUTE, OTHERS UNSETTLED AUDIENCES WITH CHILLING NUCLEAR-AGE FILMS. WHETHER WITH AN ORWELLIAN TAKE ON AUTHORITARIANISM IN EGYPT OR POETIC REINVENTIONS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THROUGH THE LENS OF ALIENATION, THEY ALL BROKE CONVENTIONS. YET THEY PRODUCED WORK THAT FELT RELEVANT, ACCESSIBLE, AND URGENT.
Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser; Lynette Wallworth
FILMMAKERS
NEW YORK CITY AND MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA; AUSTRALIA
For immersing audiences in the destructive power of the nuke.
Experimental interfaces in visual storytelling broke new ground this year—and they did so by using immersive viewing experiences to explore one of the most threatening technologies created by human beings: nuclear weapons. Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser’s Tribeca Film Festival installation, the bomb, surrounded audience members with nightmarish explosion footage projected on 360-degree, 30-foot screens. Accompanied by live music, the work is akin to “shock treatment,” Keshari says; in fact, at least three
