Stranger Comes To Town watch on-line
2007, 28 minutes
They say there's only two stories in the world: man goes on a journey, and stranger comes to town.
Six people are interviewed anonymously about their experiences coming into the US. Each then designs a video game avatar who tells their story by proxy. Goss focuses on the questions and examinations used to establish identity at the border, and how these processes in turn affect one's own sense of self and view of the world.
"Stranger Comes to Town" re-works animations from the Department of Homeland Security --combining them with stories from the border, impressions from the on-line game World of Warcraft, and journeys via Google Earth to tell a tale of bodies moving through lands familiar and strange.
Support from Creative Capital, DAAD Foundation, and Bard Faculty Research Fund.
"...a rich ambiguous contemplation of identity and the arbitrariness of geopolitical borders. . " Mark Holcomb Time Out magazine