Sunday: The Road Movie
The compilation of Russian dash cam footage screens at PhilaMOCA.
There’s no blood or gore in The Road Movie.
Russia’s infamously corrupt legal system has an upside: dash cams. According to Wired, a functioning camera on your dashboard is as essential as headlights and tires for Russian motorists. Why?
It’s the best way they can protect themselves against corrupt cops and courts, in the events of some accident or crime on the road. That’s why YouTube seems so flush with terrifying, fascinating and/or hilarious footage of Russian automotive mayhem (not to mention moments of celestial bliss, like meteors arching across the night sky).
Which leads us to the unique cinematic experience taking place at PhilaMOCA on Sunday. Compiled by filmmaker Dmitrii Kalashnikov, The Road Movie promises all manner of accidentally recorded moments: collisions, near-misses, road rage attacks, forest fires and lots of other every day events not often recorded for posterity. Watching these things on a big screen, one after the other, should be a rare and intense experience.
“Often Kalashnikov lets segments run on uninterrupted, until we begin to dread any long stretch of calm as prelude to some random disaster,” wrote Dennis Harvey in Variety last year. “Despite the often hair-raising nature of what we witness, there’s surprisingly no gore.”
The Road Movie @ PhilaMOCA | Sunday, February 18
