The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein

Committed and ambitious project that comprises both fictional and documentary elements. Alongside the storyline, beautiful images of the desert surroundings of Santa Fe are juxtaposed with footage from CNN and Pentagon propaganda at a slow tempo. The poetic message of the film is augmented by pictures of a collection of prowar knickknacks (from Tshirts to toy soldiers) and of a musician who performs his own antiwar composition.While American tanks roll across the desert of Kuwait and Iraq, the Gulf War also has farreaching consequences in another desert: that of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A single American mother is threatened because of her last name (Hussein). A handsome young soldier comes back from his tour of duty in the Gulf, where he had to do the dirty work. His traumatic experiences there prevent him from adjusting to life in civvy street. A teenager is at odds with his respectable parents because of his aversion to the American actions.Gianvito’s filmic examples are directors like Robert Kramer, Peter Watkins and Ken Loach who, like him, do not hide their political convictions. Gianvito worked on his film for six years, on a minimum budget. For this reason, the cast was largely made up of nonprofessional actors and it was shot on 16mm stock.