Fish Kill Flea
D: Brian Cassidy, Aaron Hillis, and Jennifer Loeber
In the hills of upstate New York sits an increasingly common sight: an empty mall awaiting its fate (future Home Depot or future Wal-Mart?). The directors of Fish Kill Flea gently sing the mall to sleep with a caring depiction of its final tenant: a flea market occupying only a small portion of the building. Without the aid of narration, the film manages a thin narrative of a makeshift family of vendors trying to stay together. Interviews are broken up by visual tone poems of the mall in its heyday and death throes. The movie can play like an excuse to show some great footage padded with interesting-enough characters, but a unique soundtrack and deft edits keep it compelling. In the end, Fish Kill Flea whispers its concern for our disposable culture as it captures a subculture losing its battle for survival.
11:15am, Alamo South Lamar
