2007 SUNDANCE SHORT! Two recurring themes in this years short film festival are Hurricane Katrina and the war, and why not? Both situations are still very volatile in the world, and both are still slippery slopes we can’t quite recover or resolve.
“Destiny Manifesto” explores the effects of the Western world on the Eastern world through time, through Manifest Destiny, the notion that asserted the US was destined to expand, and we’ve practiced such a theory from the very beginning.
Colburn, through stark and often morbid animation, examines the parallels of the Western battles on horse back, with the current Middle east conflicts, and the death grip the constant wars and invasions have had not only on innocent people, but on the land.
“Destiny Manifesto” paints assorted battle scenes of Indians and cowboys, and then strokes the imagery with paint transforming the sequences into the current Middle East war, Darfur, and Abu Ghraib, and the message comes through loud and clear. Colburn’s short is not just about war, but about the utter lunacy Westernization can inflict.
