The American Fall

This short film is interesting in several ways while also falling short of what I thought it might have been trying to do. The title is deliberately double-edged and, just in case you missed it, the title card then spells it out by showing the dictionary definition of fall as both the season and the descent of something. So in the title and the introduction we are told that the film is about the American autumn of 2012 and also about the decline of America. That the film then focuses on the Presidential race of that season starts out looking like it will be a pretty damming film.

The biggest surprise of the short is then that it doesn't do this once the words on the title cards have faded. The film delivers us the key sound bites and moments from the Presidential race via audio news clips while underneath we get a constant flow of shots of the road, of different places around the US, of the flag of monuments and so on. If there is political commentary in the film then it will need to be already in your head. So if you think all politicians are killing the country while ordinary people just get on with their lives, then this is what you'll see. If you think that Obama is killing this beautiful country and bad luck saw Romney lose the election and Obama trick his way into office again, then this is what you'll see – and so on. In a way it is good for the film not to push an agenda, but it steps so far from doing this that it really doesn't say anything apart from what it suggests it will say in the title.

Despite this the film is still interesting as a potted summary of a race filled with sound bites, missteps, media saturation, spin and natural disasters and to hear all this again in 10 minutes was interesting. The images underneath are nicely presented and filmed but few are really memorable and I regularly found my focus drawn to the politics rather than the mix of audio and visual. It was a nice ride but at the end it felt rather empty – very well edited together and presented, but the opening statement of title and card suggested commentary and really there is none to be found here – you'll find what you bring to it, which will appeal to some but for me I would rather receive the film rather than fill it myself. Worth a look for what it does well but it is disappointing for what it doesn't do.