Building Blocks

An experimental documentary about Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and Upper Valley. It highlights the sparseness of the landscape, its isolation and industry, while showing the thread of humanity that lies within.

a cornucopia

Almost forty years after its first appearance in You The Better, the house returns as a character in Beckman’s new work Reach Capacity, now symbolising real estate. The economic and political elements and the structure of the film are closely associated with the most famous of all board games dealing with real estate, Monopoly. Its origins go back to the early 1900s, when Elizabeth Magie created a first version of what she called The Landlord’s Game. Magie’s game had two sets of rules, a Prosperity set and a Monopolist set (only the latter was kept by Parker Brothers when they further developed the game without her). Magie’s aim was to illustrate how society as a whole thrives when monopolies are banished and income is distributed equally. Beckman takes over Magie’s dual game structure by having her screen flip over when a monopoly is reached.

The search for the comfort of my youth and the feeling of my mom braiding my hair as i drift off to sleep

Three friends search for a missing man in Manchester, New Hampshire