T H E  U N S E E N  F E S T I V A L

America for Americans, by Blair McClendon

America for Americans, by Blair McClendon, has a simple premise: you have heard this before, you have seen this before, you already know. There are found images you may have seen or assiduously avoided. There is dancing, dying, rioting. It is a collage of quotes drawing upon various histories of suffering and resistance. The speakers are writers, musicians, the aggrieved, the grief-worn, bystanders all at a moment of engagement with the precipice upon which black life is perched. It is the presentation of a siege.

Video. Color/Sound. 2017. 35 min.

This film will screen at The Unseen Festival at Counterpath on opening night, Thursday, September 21, 2017.

Blair Seab McClendon is an artist and editor who is from San Diego, but is currently living in New York City. His most recent work, America for Americans, is a found footage essay film on black joy and besiegement. The film won a Jury Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. His work as an editor has screened at Sundance, SXSW, DOC NYC, and Cannes.