Chicago filmmaker Deborah Stratman returns to Buffalo to present her latest critically acclaimed film O'er The Land (51:40, 2009). A meditation on patriotism and violence and personal transcendence, Stratman's experimental doc elegantly uses her camera to observe and ponder the myth of American Progress. Woven into the film's tapestry is the survival story of Col. William Rankin, who was forced to eject from his F8U fighter jet at 48,000 feet without a pressure suit, only to get trapped for 45 minutes in the up and down drafts of a massive thunderstorm. The feature film will be preceded by The Paranormal Trilogy, a series of films and video (total running time 10 min.).
Deborah Stratman has created a beautiful meditation on militarized culture, an elegant, logical strand, an oasis in a festival of generally more hurried films," wrote Paste Magazine's Robert Davis in "Sundance 2009:Final Scorecard."
April and May, 2011 - 2011