'Decampment' is not merely poetic, it is a new way for readers approach and think about how poetry might exist in a world, where millions of readers are turning from books to the internet, to a world where information is constantly changing and recycling itself. Often, I ask, "Why does poetry believe it doesn't have to change with the times, when so many other forms of storytelling are?" I'm called to think of Allen Ginsberg blowing poetry into an open form with "Howl," T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland" depicting a world destroyed by the onslaught of World War II. When thinking of film, how can one deny the significance of Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange," or what Hitchcock did for film? The Mossotti brothers have teamed up to create, through animation and close attention to detail, a way to bring out necessary and haunting imagery found in well-written poetry. When I found out about this short film, I was certain it wouldn't live up to the poem I had read in "Southern Humanities Review," a journal out of Auburn University, but for the past month, I haven't been able to not watch the film at least once every two or three days.
As in a great poem, where new images and syntactical variations abound, giving a a new reading each time--which is what the poem does on its own, Josh Mossotti's remediation and interpretation of the poem works on these same levels, showing many of the great images and recreating, even supporting and unearthing/unpacking the narrative and lyricism of this poem, and elevating the poem to a new plane of consciousness, while at the same time allowing for open interpretation.
Small details, such as a cigarette burning down in each scene, "Moonlight Sonata" playing on a record player, carefully drawn curtains, or a wolf stomping through dreams are details Josh Mossotti includes to give the audience just enough of the narrative, without muddling interpretation, allowing the audience their own experience.
I have not seen a film as poetic and necessary as 'Decampment.' I am blown away by the beauty of language, animation, and directorial skills of these two talented and visionary brothers. We are all witnesses to a new standard of film making, and we are better for it.
