Run Away, They'll See Us
2020 · 10m · USA
Directed by Ryan Henry Knight
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, surreal, tense
A woman's ordinary day is invaded by an unwelcome presence, rendered in black-and-white near-silence. An unsettling applause track loops underneath like a sitcom from hell.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A video poem that weaponizes the laugh track — finally somebody understands that canned applause is the most haunted sound in American media. I'm in.
Canned applause as ambient menace instead of comic reassurance is exactly the Brechtian inversion I respect — Maya Deren's domestic dread is the right lineage. Smart formal gesture.
Canned applause used as ambient menace instead of comic reassurance in a near-silent black-and-white video poem — that single sound-design choice is the entire thesis and it's a brave one. Brechtian dread-track.
Reviews
A striking video poem told in black and white, largely silent but for the inclusion of an unsettling applause track.