California Company Town

Director: Lee Anne Schmitt
Writer: Lee Anne Schmitt
Theatrical Release Date: July 24, 2009
On The Web IMDB Entry

Synopsis: "California Company Town" casts a probing, clear-eyed gaze at the landscape of California towns built and abandoned by the industries that necessitated their creation – onetime boom-towns now haunted by the twilight of the American promise. A versatile multidisciplinary artist, Schmitt creates evocative, deeply felt works that consider everyday elements of American life as cultural ritual, including a series of cinematic investigations of the intersections of landscape with personal memory ("Las Vegas"), with the history of the American Left ("Awake and Sing"), and with urban development ("The Wash").

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seattlefilmblog | July 22, 2009Reply

I saw this at SIFF 2009 and the Variety review linked above is pretty dead on. It's at times interesting to look at visually and does give some history of various types of company towns setup over the years in CA. Most of which are dead. But the slow pacing and the (by the end annoying) voice over doesn't really get as richly into the details as I'd have liked. So overall not sure what to make of it beyond there are a bunch of dead towns in CA. Some because big companies set them up (probably both to be up and running quickly in remote spots with the (implied and possibly true) bonus ability to do evil). Others because of failed experiments in either utopian thinking or business ventures. I guess experimental documentary means you have to figure the point out yourself. It ends with a reference to Silicon Valley that left me with no clue as to what the point was. I know some of the programmers at the festival absolutely loved it - so it's possibly one of those things that clicks or doesn't for you. http://seattlefilmfest.blogspot.com