Allen Killian-Moore’s film about alienation and homelessness in America is partially presented as a documentary focusing on Joe Ortega, who talks at length about his unhappy life, but also as a visual tone poem. Killian-Moore, a video artist and writer whose work has been featured in a variety of galleries in the Midwest, constructs a montage of grainy black-and-white footage shot in Salt Lake City and rural Utah, mostly showing decaying structures, people walking about aimlessly, and vacant vistas, together with snatches of dialogue from unidentified souls drawn from Internet archives. But Desolation Slow also adds periodic chunks of interview footage with Ortega, who speaks about his brutal childhood, bouts with drugs and alcohol, and life on the streets. The film closes with the revelation that Ortega has joined the 5% of the state’s homeless population who have been provided a permanent residence through a project called Housing First (and he appears determined to turn his life around). While one can appreciate the motivation behind Killian-Moore’s effort—a closing bow to Dorothy Day and her work helping those affected by the Great Depression makes his empathy for the less fortunate quite clear—the film itself suffers from being repetitive and unmodulated. Optional. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Desolation Slow
(2018) 62 min. DVD: $200. Allen Killian-Moore. PPR. Volume 34, Issue 3
Desolation Slow
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