Filmmaker Jovan Todorovic presents a visceral and enigmatic dramatization of American poet Danez Smith's eponymous lyric on alienation, violence and salvation in the States. The poem, which was published and widely shared on Buzzfeed, and accompanies his heart-wrenchingly powerful book Don't Call Us Dead, explores race relations, social disintegration, and the failure of the American Dream, which receives a dystopian visual take from Todorovic.

Speaking about his darkly dynamic visual ode, and the poem that accompanies it, Todorovic explains: "America and the American dream is an emotion, and it used to be an attainable dream. This sentiment is quickly dissolving. My wish is to address this despair purely on an emotional level. This is a poetic short film that explores what has happened to the idea of the American Dream… a visceral meditation on the idea of death and decay… and finally, rebirth."

We interviewed Jovan about social sickness, alienation, and poetry's relationship to film.

NOWNESS: I’m curious about the opening stock footage. It’s a time-capsule of a particular moment, a particular cold war-era optics about being American.How did you find this footage, and how do you relate to it?

Jovan: To me, America is an emotion. The American dream is a narrative and myth that people around the globe could tap into. American politics, the arts, popular culture, all of these were working together in building this sentiment. The archive footage comes from the golden age of the American Dream. It retains a certain naivety that everyone shared at the time.This naivety in thinking resonates in the poorly directed educational and propaganda films of the time and reminds us it is all a construct. I think the feeling that emotes from this layer of footage in the film is an undeniable archetype that many generations grew up to and are now witnessing it as it is dissolving before our eyes. On some level this film is about the promises of white hetero-normative America, and how people have been left behind, wounded, stranded, bleeding and dying.

I grew up in Serbia with this idea of America being the haven of humanity where justice, human rights, equality, and freedom were at large. After coming here, I’ve gradually learned it’s not a perfect place. Nevertheless, this backdrop at least allows us to express our dissatisfaction, and so there is hope in this.

NOWNESS: The subjects who bleed, stumble, slump and writhe throughout the film seem to embody the ‘death’ or sickness of America. Where did the idea for this literal necrosis come from, and what—for you—does it symbolize? 

Jovan: This film is a collection of my dreams. I wanted to make a film that alerts at the current state of things. This state of things is a global affair, and so the problem surpasses the borders of this country. America is thus a symbol of a planetary state. I intended to converse and alert and express through feelings. Rational discourse is up for debate, and I don’t want to argue or open things up for discussion. 

Our narrative is falling apart, and we are all to blame. So, it’s death on all levels; the guy in the office after what could have been an explosion, shooting spree, a meteor hitting Earth. I was inspired by the iconography and curiously apocalyptic yet veryAmerican scenes of Edward Hopper’s paintings, and the photography of Gregory Crewdson. There’s also a lot of religious symbolism. The pieta in which Virgin Mary cradles Jesus is here represented by a black man carrying an overdosed white girl in front of the motel. The soundtrack of the film, composed by Nemanja Mosurovic, my longtime collaborator from Serbia is the “DiesIrae” requiem with a modified order of select verses.

NOWNESS: A poem is such a mercurial, elusive thing. What was it like turning a poem into a film?

Jovan: It was an exciting and specific process for me precisely because the inspiration was a poem. Because this poem creates feelings through the juxtaposition of very sensory pictures, scenes and moments I was inspired to construct the film similarly. Rather than writing by consciously building meaning I turned to some of my dreams and built the script and scenes around what I feel about the world today. This kind of ‘open’ process of building scenes allowed me to work with all authors on the film in a way where they would have space to put their own experiences and feelings about the theme while staying in line with the emotional tone and context that I’ve initially based the scenes upon.