Gestures of Collapse, 3'15 excerpt (original 12'00)
Gestures of Collapse is a short film inspired by a 1990s news story about alleged Coca-Cola poisoning that affected several high schools in Belgium. Following an investigation, the incident was identified as a large-scale case of mass sociogenic illness (MSI): “a constellation of symptoms of an organic disease, without identifiable cause, which occurs between two or more people who share beliefs related to those symptoms.”
The film adopts the format of television news to explore how contagion, rumours, beliefs, emotions, and actions spread. It reflects on human behaviour, the mimetic unconscious, and the ways in which actions are predicted, influenced, reproduced, and manipulated.
Supported by Mondriaan Fonds.