\u201cYou\u2019ve got this terrain that\u2019s set for you, and then you decide how you array the windows and the volumes, and you get rhythmic possibilities that you don\u2019t have in single channel,\u201d says Beebe. \u201cThematically, the most important thing about it was just really thinking about the computer interfaces, like how I really accessed that world that I\u2019m talking about, this sort of concrete physical world where the distribution centres are located. It felt important to pass through that portal to experience that footage. I had played with other versions of it that just presented the original Super 8 footage and 16mm footage full frame. There\u2019s something that just felt really wrong about it, and it really seemed to resolve that when I recontextualized all that stuff in the computer space.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching Amazonia<\/i>, you\u2019d think it was done all in one take, but Beebe says that it\u2019s more complicated than that. If you\u2019ve ever experienced the frustration of having too many tabs open on your web browser, trying to record this style of film would be your living nightmare.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are [cuts] but there are big chunks where I had to learn to perform it, and so I would do one chunk until I had a swipe to a new clean desktop,\u201d says Beebe. \u201cI\u2019ve done it for a couple of my recent works and I\u2019m really interested in being in that space about the compositional possibilities of the multi-projector, multi-window environment of the desktop.\u201d<\/p>\n Beebe says that the first presentations he did of Amazonia<\/i> were in a couple different forms, including trying to perform every mouse click live.<\/p>\n \u201c[It was] an impossibly stupid thing to have tried,\u201d he admits, \u201cbut I tried to preserve some of that liveness in the recorded version.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazonia<\/i> highlights many unsustainable business practices used by Amazon, even though Beebe himself admits to shopping there occasionally.<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is my girlfriend has an Amazon Prime membership and I do take advantage of it from time to time,\u201d he says. \u201cIn fact, for a new four-projector installation that I\u2019m installing on Thursday, I had to buy these motion sensors on Amazon. I don\u2019t shop more there than I have to, but I do seem to have occasion to buy something there every month or two if there\u2019s some weird little doodad. We\u2019re all inhabiting these contradictions\u2026 We all want to do better, we all want a world that is more just, and humane, and green, and all of these things, but we also depend on airplanes and cars and factories in southeast Asia and all this other stuff. You don\u2019t just watch a 24-minute documentary and then you\u2019ve solved the problem, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n Going into the film, Beebe would like viewers to keep in mind that this isn\u2019t an activist documentary \u201cin the sense that it prescribes a program.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hope at least this information is in there so people can make consumption decisions,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to be a lecture, so I do hope it\u2019s informative and I do hope it\u2019s also an experience. I hope that viewers will not reduce it to its content.\u201d<\/p>\n By no means is Amazonia<\/i> a conventional documentary\u2014the form is made to complement the content, almost like poetry. And, like some poetry, this story is open-ended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAfter finishing the film, it feels like every week there\u2019s a new article that makes me want to add a new chapter to it, you know. There\u2019s a sort of crazy twist about Amazon now sub-contracting\u2026 They ended their relationship with FedEx and now they\u2019re hiring private drivers to insulate them from any responsibility in case the drivers get into a wreck and kill somebody,\u201d says Beebe. \u201cI\u2019ve seen drivers in my neighbourhood driving rented U-Haul trucks delivering Amazon packages. So it feels like every week there\u2019s a new story like that\u2026 Keep your eyes peeled for the sequel.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Amazonia-warehouse-interior-still.jpg\")
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