Director: Various Directors
Four films about what happens when the machinery of the state presses down on individual lives. “Escalation” (dir. AJ Schnack; 32 min.) puts more than a dozen U.S. journalists in front of the camera to recount being targeted by police while covering protests. “In Exchange for Flesh” (dirs. Corey Devon Arthur & Sandro Ramani; 15 min.) goes behind prison walls, using recorded calls, smuggled footage, and state archival material to document “strip frisk,” a violent and state-sanctioned practice that most people outside the system have never heard of. “Pass Time” (dir. Jj Measer; 16 min.) is quieter but no less unsettling, observing how news cycles seep into the rhythms of daily life, and the soundtrack is the hum of a country arguing with itself. “The Hotline” (dirs. Ricki Stern & Jesse Sweet; 36 min.) sits with the volunteers of an anonymous overdose hotline. In a country where overdose remains a leading cause of preventable death, there is something almost unbearably human in the act of simply staying on the line.