This blew me away. The Rockstrohs have produced a searing videopoem in the style of a political documentary weaving together American militarism, consumerism, capitalism and the interstate highway system without ever getting too preachy for my taste, somehow. Here’s the description at Vimeo:

On US Interstates, we meet the US empire coming towards us. In this evocative video, we meet confederate ghosts and demons of consumer emptiness. We travel down the highway, propelled by engines of extinction, towards empire’s end, where we find ourselves bearing much grief yet are stranded amid ferocious beauty.

I queried Phil about whether he was O.K. with my characterizing the script as a poem, and how their collaboration worked. He wrote: “You can describe the work as a spoken word piece or a long poem if it suits you. That is what I was going for when I wrote the script. And, yes, please, credit Angela and me as the filmmakers. We co-directed and collaborated on the imagery therein, and Angela has the mastery of the technology involved to create the evocative visuals.”

Phil Rockstroh is a poet, lyricist, and essayist, published widely across the progressive internet. Angela Tyler-Rockstroh is a broadcast designer/animator who currently works with HBO. She has worked with major networks such as the Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and PBS, as well as with Michael Moore on his documentaries Fahrenheit 911 and Sicko.