Showing @ Summerhall, Edinburgh until Sun 25 Aug (not 12, 19) @ times vary
Bonanza is the third project in Berlin‘s Holocene series, each of which is a highly researched detailed exploration of a particular place expressed through an appropriate medium. Bonanza is a tiny former mining town in America’s Rocky Mountains, populated by just seven full-time residents.
Once upon a time, Bonanza was home to several thousand people, dozens of saloons and brothels – and no churches. In contrast, the current residents seem largely spiritually driven and include a priest and New Age healers attracted by the beauty and solitude of the tiny village. But the surface of what initially seems like utopia is slowly scratched away in this revealing documentary film to show the widening cracks beneath.
Bonanza is staged across five video screens surmounted by a huge scale model of the town. This format gives it a panoramic feel which suits the wide open spaces of the subject matter perfectly. It also neatly allows multiple viewpoints to be shown simultaneously, mirroring the alliances and petty rivalries of the residents.
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