Obscuring Power, 2023
32:25 min, HD video with sound
Obscuring Power is a short film following community “smoke readers" in Pittsburgh, PA. Smoke readers are concerned residents trained in the EPA’s Method 9 to monitor visual pollution emissions from industrial sites and report violations. Method 9 is a policy for regulating emissions with the human eye. Despite the proliferation of camera recording technology, it is still widely used to regulate visible emissions. Obscuring Power is a slow meditation on vision, certainty, and doubt. It combines footage and soundscapes of Pittsburgh industrial sites with glimpses of community monitoring efforts to consider contemporary compulsory risk and systems of power.
A link to view the full film is available upon request.
This project was supported in part by funding from the Carnegie Mellon University Frank-Ratchye Further Fund.
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