The Unknown Country by Morrisa Maltz
“The Unknown Country” is a film that is in production and a photobook. The photobook will be released when the film is released for festivals in January 2020. Morrisa Maltz
I have been taking the photos while traveling through the American Midwest over the course of the last few years. The photos are an exploration of this region– sometimes stopping and shooting and sometimes shooting out the window while traveling, often leaving the shutter open and not pointing at anything specific– in order to memorialize moments on the roads that I may not even fully experience. They are all 35mm or medium format.
The movie, in a way, does this same thing for the people within this region along with the landscape. I have frequented diners, gas stations and motels over the course of the last few years from South Dakota to Texas and have found a grouping of people that I am highlighting within the film.
Morrisa Maltz is an artist and filmmaker. Her art, film, and performance work have been shown at MOCA, Los Angeles, as well as at the MCA, Santa Barbara and galleries internationally.
THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY
a narrative/documentary hybrid feature
Spurred by the discovery of a forgotten family photograph, a young Lakota woman embarks on an epic journey that will take her from her home in Minneapolis all the way to the Texas border. This narrative/doc hybrid is an exploration of the American Midwest and the people and places found within it. The people and places that are highlighted within the film are places that I have frequented (this can be seen in my 35mm film work) and features people I have befriended over the years in my travels. The film will weave in and out of the lives of these people in order to create an honest portrait of this region of America (that had such an effect on the 2016 election)- bridge the gap between the urban and rural divide and give a relevance to the everyday lives of the average American.