Another America is Possible

Produced using open-source face-substitution software, Crying Games features a cast of actors playing Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, political figures whose ideas, policies, and military campaigns defined the 2000s—the violent repercussions of which continue to echo through our own time. In the video the actors’ faces are digitally replaced with the political figures’ faces, allowing Kline to put words in their mouths and emotions in their eyes. Harnessing this new technology, Kline attempts to turn historical revisionism—a mainstay of American politics and mass communication—into a critical tool.

The setting for Josh Kline’s Adaptation is the contaminated canyons of a flooded New York City in the near future—here rendered with resolutely analog special effects, including matte shots and scale models. Amid the ruins, life and work continue, as the city’s remaining relief workers adapt to the strange beauty of their newly transformed home and the consequences of a slow, preventable apocalypse.