CCTV1: Red Flags
Filmed across Taiwan, Japan, China, Europe, and North America, the work drifts through semiconductor factories, military spectacles, abandoned industrial landscapes, shipping ports, ghost malls, and the quiet architecture of geopolitical influence.
Locations Include
- TSMC semiconductor plants in Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Hsinchu
- Military parade in Washington, D.C.
- Shipping ports in Savannah, Shanghai, and Hong Kong
- Abandoned malls across Western New York
- Bethlehem Steel, Pennsylvania
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
- Tiananmen Square
The film exists in two overlapping realities.
One is built from the machinery of modern civilization: states, borders, pedogarchs, spooks, petrogarchs, supply chains, militaries, algorithms, media, and the invisible systems that quietly shape our lives.
The other is inhabited by contemporary folk spirits: forgotten mascots, bootleg cartoon creatures, Teletubbies, SpongeBob, Ronald McDonald, Jesus Christ, quantum ghosts, and the strange collective myths we have invented to make sense of an increasingly incomprehensible world.
As the architecture of global power slowly gives way to contemporary mythology, the boundaries between these two realities begin to collapse.
The only being capable of moving freely between them is an eight-foot-tall creature named Dibby, whose costume was created by Georgian artist and costume designer Uta Bekaia.
Dibby is doing the best that he can.
CCTV stands for China Central Television, the state television broadcaster of China.
