Cultural Diminish

1988, 23 min, color, sound

In Cultural Diminish, Andrews indicts both the elitist and mass culture industries of postwar America, juxtaposing fragments from such disparate cultural realms as TV entertainment, art history, pro sports and black urban street life. An appropriated collage of what he terms "cultural contributions" from Lex Lugar, Jimi Hendrix, Pavarotti and Ali Akkbar Khan is intercut with subjective footage of street scenes and the urban homeless.

Andrews builds tense sequences of almost poetic associative power: To classical music and artillery sounds, a split screen shows underwater dolphins and hand-held footage of the sea. Close-ups of Andrews shaking his head in an emphatic "No!" fade to newsreel images of rolling tanks overlaid with on-screen narrative text. Representing a landscape of cultural difference in a pastiche of information and images, Andrews poses the questions, "How did we get here and how do we get out?"

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Educational Rental
Rental
$75.00
 
Screening Rental
Digital File
$120.00
 
Exhibition Rental
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$720.00
 
Educational Purchase
DVD NTSC
$300.00