Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

The legacies of two historical figures converge around lost settlements within a rural Florida village. One historical figure was an assassin, working under a series of aliases on behalf of pro-slavery secessionists during the American civil war in 1865. The other figure shed his western name to become an anti-colonial freedom fighter in the 1830's, battling the American government's acts of stealing land and murdering the native people of Florida. These two men cross paths posthumously in a trio of disappeared towns, marked by nothing more than brown historical markers. To tell these stories of deception and displacement, the film is structured as a travelogue, combining landscapes, archival texts, and highly abstracted voice-overs. In Nomotopowell, names and places are largely obscured, and knowledge itself is nearly lost in the shadows of the village cemetery, side roads, and moonlit swamps.

Brent Chesanek has screened his films at CPH:DOX, FIDMarseille, RIDM (Montréal), Seattle IFF, DOXA (Vancouver), FIDBA (Buenos Aires), Singapore IFF, NovosCinemas Pontevedra, IndieMemphis, Visions.MTL, Denver IFF, Art Basel Miami Beach, and more. He has presented to the industry programs at Ji.Hlava New Visions Forum and Champs-Élysées US-In-Progress. He has a BA from the University of Florida.