Tuesday, August 19th at 8pm
BeBe Theatre, 20 Commerce St., Asheville
$5 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story (2011, 57 min., video)
Dir. Garrett Scott
In May 1995, Shawn Nelson, a 35-year-old plumber from Clairemont, California, emerged from an eighteen foot mine shaft he had dug beneath his backyard in search for gold. An ex-soldier and methamphetamine abuser, he stole a tank from a nearby National Guard armory and went on a rampage through the residential streets of his neighborhood, crushing cars and lampposts until the cops took him down.
A portrait of a San Diego suburb built on a booming post-WWII defense industry and its subsequent bust, the ravages of methamphetamine use, and how these histories come together in one tragic and unbelievable instance. CUL DE SAC provides extensive political, economic, and social context to this seemingly minor news story that ties Nelson’s life to the larger story of a working class community in decline.
“Truly extraordinary… a chilling X-ray of the despair in poor white suburbia. The film ambitiously frames its psychological autopsy and class analysis within the historical context of Southern California’s aerospace industry-fueled development and decline.” —The Independent Film & Video Monthly
This screening is courtesy of Icarus Films.
Mechanical Eye Microcinema 