North of South, West of East
Film Production & Exhibition
2011–2013
- Artist
- Meredith Danluck
- Commissioned by
- Ballroom Marfa & Renwick Gallery
- Role
- Producer
PRODUCTION
A four-channel, 85-minute scripted film and gallery installation by Meredith Danluck. Matthew Shattuck produced the film, shot on location across Michigan and Texas, along with its multi-screen installations. The four channels play back in frame-accurate synchronization, so dialogue can pass seamlessly from one screen to the next.
THE FILM
North of South, West of East takes a scrupulous look at the American Dream through Hollywood tropes and conventional cinema. Four archetypes, the Cowboy, the Rebel, the Immigrant, and the Actress, are drawn together by the automobile, the romantic symbol of the American landscape. Each is searching for reinvention and sincerity, true love and meaning. After a series of mystical encounters, uncanny coincidences, and one drug deal gone wrong, they wind up stranded in the West Texas desert, where each faces their personal demons in a bizarre ceremony with a Mexican priest. Each is tasked with a journey that ends in reinvention, and in one case, death.
Each character’s story plays out on a separate screen simultaneously, with dialogue occurring on one screen at a time, creating an immersive, non-linear cinema experience. Laid side by side, the components of comedy, thrill, violence, love, and death reveal the chronic existential crisis of American identity, and give voice to cinematic moments typically deemed extraneous.
CREDITS
Executive Producer: Jorge Linares
Cinematographer: Jake Burghart
Editor: Eileen Kennedy
Assistant Director: Brian Orce
Production Designer: James Maher
Sound Design and Mix: Chris Drozowski
Composer: John Fraser Carpenter
Music: Solid Waste
Principal Cast: Ben Foster, Sue Galloway, Stella Schnabel, James Penfold, Erik Quintana, Jimmy Raskin, Adam Bork, JP Schwartz
PRESENTATIONS
Ballroom Marfa, AutoBody, curated by Neville Wakefield, Marfa, TX, Sep 30, 2011 – Feb 12, 2012 (premiere)
Sundance Film Festival, New Frontier, Jan 18 – 27, 2013
Rooftop Films, New York, Aug 2, 2013
Houston Cinema Arts Festival, Houston, Nov 6 – 10, 2013