Never fall in line

Filmed and edited by Davíd Ciotti Hernández

Audio Copyright © – The Decca Record Company Limited, under Fair Use

    I wasn't certain of where I was taking this project until I was deep into it. Reading over the assignment, the  McLuhan quote, “march backwards into the future,” really stuck with me. It reminded me so much of my time stage managing The Show Is Over, a devised embodied dance show, which was last spring term's MainStage production. 

    The first section of the show was around 10 minutes of the cast crossing from off stage left to off stage right while walking backwards (then safely run forwards through the basement back to the other side to continue the cycle), while pealing off layers of clothing. These two images started to lead my mind in what kind of footage I should capture. 

    My friend taking off many sweaters, in my mind, always came with the meaning of a type of stripping of identity, and I wanted it overlayed on top of the walking footage. 

    I thought about how I could get a walk crossing cycle like The Show is Over's and then realized my house worked perfect with the main hallway and stairs on both ends down to the basement. I also knew right away that I would reverse this footage to give it an uncanny feeling. I wanted the camera to be more inline with the direction of the flow of the people, rather than dead on perpendicular. 

    Originally I intended for my friends to be going at a faster pace and more jumbled around, but I didnt speak that out loud before we started filming, and they started more of an in line march, calm and collected, until we were off camera and running through the basement. We did maybe 4-5 cycles and I called the last one and on that last one, it seemed like everyone did a unique alteration since they thought it'd be cut. 

    But, with already having planned to reverse the footage, I finally came across my intent for the piece. It's built on many different things like my feelings for the state of the world, but then also more specifically the opening number of the second act of the musical Cabaret. Kickline includes no words but starts as a fun vaudevillian tune with the "Cabaret Girls" preforming an energetic kickline and then quickly turns to the melody of the Nazi dogwhistle anthem (that was created for the show which was written, composed, produced, and starred by Jewish artists) clicks on and the Cabaret Girls start falling in line, marching in unison while doing the Nazi salute, as a point to show how a widely liberal society, like the Weimar Republic or yours and mine right now, can quickly turn into a fascist state. 

    Latest major sighting of the Nazi salute was seen just the other day being preformed by the Zionist Elon Musk, who was later defended by the ADL, Anti-Defamation League, which is an organization founded to "combat Antisemitism," yet all they do is post fear mongering content and lies about Palestinians and Activists and also defend a deeply influential person preforming the Nazi salute. You can't make this shit up. Furthermore, during his first day of his second term, Trump has started his attempts to strip individuals of their identities, chipping away at personal freedoms and offsetting horrendous actions against minority populations. 

    History shows us that it often begins with small, seemingly benign actions, which gradually build until conformity is demanded. "Fall in Line: Now" is the title of my video. 

    

    The music backing the video is a latin styled instrumental cover of the song Let the Sunshine in from the musical Hair. It's the very last song of the show, taking place after our protagonist, Claude's, Acid trip (the Acid trip takes place throughout the entirety of the second act). The show's "through line" (the stage version doesn't have a "narrative") is Claude's inner debate weather he should stay with his hippie friends or to pursue his dream, which is to become invisible. To become "invisible" he did not burn his draft card like his friends did, to be only know as a number while at war in Vietnam. After most a majority of the lyrics in the song, the last 2ish minutes is just repeating the phrase "Let the sunshine in". As the music gets less consistent and more sporadic, the crowd gathered at center stage begins to dwindle, revealing Claude's dead body, alone on the U.S flag. 

    The song itself has become prolific, being covered and referenced throughout its 56 years of existence, but the original, deeply saddening message about a persons untimely death in the name of a pointless war, gets muddled by the happy sounding words. But when taking the original context into account, I felt like the song was the thing that cemented it for me and made me really like the video.