Distant Early Warning
A dissection of 8mm films created by Thomas Little and his brother Woodrow as they worked in the Aleutian Islands from 1955-56 for Bell Telephone. Project 572 was operated in collaboration with the US and Canadian governments to build a system of antennae known as the Distant Early Warning Line (DEWLine) so that we might have a few hours to respond to incoming weapons of mass destruction from Russia during the Cold War. These personal documents from the edges of the earth on the frigid tundra were uncovered years after the lives of the men had passed, and the resulting film searches for presence beyond the surface of the image through processing into digital flatness, while also stepping into the filmmaking instincts of a man I barely knew and his participation in a project that echoes a desperate clinging to avoid our end.
Premiered at the Buffalo International Film Festival on October 12, 2024
