mountain town

A suffocating immersion into a hidden Montana landscape.

mountain town is a cinema of place filmed on sight at the Logan Landfill in Three Forks, MT. Through frames suffocated by dust, debris, and machines, the film explores the absurdity of a space highly proximate to heavily trafficked areas, tucked away and full of birds from another world. A sci-fi-inspired soundscape highlights ideas of an evolved machine, speaking to a world controlled by entities other than us that pressure the assimilation of wildlife into a claustrophobic way of existence. However, at its core, End Product forces the audience to confront the parts of our lives that we’d rather keep hidden. 

Aside from the last image, I filmed mountain town from a single open lot across the road from the landfill’s currently open trash cell. Before turning on the camera, I was worried that the location would lead to captures too obscured to use, but because of my positioning, combined with heavy reliance on a telephoto lens extended to 600mm, it led to some amazing moments of abstract shapes shifting across the frame. Along with the dust that was constantly stirred up by the compactors, these pieces inspired the beginning of the film. 

As I filmed, I found myself quite literally entranced by the way the machines moved across the piles of trash, how the birds reacted to them, and how the two entities coexist. In this regard, the place has a constant rhythm that immediately became important for me to convey. Standing in the landfill is oppressive and overstimulating. The smells, visuals, and sound, hit like a brick wall, and the whole place is controlled by machines; I wanted to place these feelings and this outside control at the center of mountain town.