SA2662A
Seb Evans
250496222
Prof. D. Sneppova
Dev. 7, ‘21

"It’s Like That, and That’s the Way It Is”

I wanted to take a look at my local mall, as it fits into the late capitalist zeitgeist. Originally the plan was to get video of an empty, struggling mall, but when I actually went there that was not what I found. I found a relatively healthy place of commerce and community. So, I decided to alter the plan, and make a video which examines the commercial space without lamenting its uncertain future, and juxtapose this place of small, local commerce against the wider world of ever-increasing inequity.

This video is set to Run-DMC’s “It’s Like That” which is a late 80’s protest song. The lyrics are still true today and the combination of the song and the visuals of the mall zooming by functions as a sort of participation in the late capitalist commercial world. We drive around the mall, as the people and store fronts zoom by, and intercut this scene with wildly cutting memes about the state of the world and it’s failing of young people. The intention is to bring the global, that which comes from the internet, down to the local, old Sherwood Forest Mall.

This short film is made by two millennials who are struggling to find our place in the late capitalist system. Matt and I made many videos of the mall, but I wound up only using a few. The few clips of Matt skateboarding are meant to reference the ways in which we struggle but find ways to keep going, to try to stay above water. Matt likes to skate, which in this video serves as a sort of metatheatrical reference to us, the filmmakers. He is skating, while I make videos, and in these ways, we somehow keep going in this world of inequity.

I wanted to make sure there was a point to all this. Something bigger than myself and some way of participating in the ongoing protest, much the same way Run-DMC were. So, I included the meme of the McDonald’s “$25 or Walk” call to action. I realize this is probably a non-starter, but I think this meme is one of the best examples of someone creating a plan of action in which we, the workers of the world, can “take the power back,” in the words of Rage Against the Machine. This is an actionable plan which, if it took off, could really work.

The film is also a sort of slice-of-life, wherein we capture these people going about their business at this local hub. We briefly go inside the mall, to reference the different spaces we occupy in our lives, in our digital selves, and with our spending. Inside all seems calm and quiet, but outside in the wider world people are really struggling. We quickly jump back outside the mall, as we wrap up our loop outside, and in the end, Matt suggests in a prescient way that we zoom out and try it again. I agree, I think we should all zoom out and try again, but this time we should be fiercely and vehemently aware that “It’s like that, and that’s the way it is,” and that maybe it’s time we should do something about it.