Hello Dankness – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

HELLO DANKNESS – Review by Leslie Combemale

August 31, 2023September 2, 2023 Leslie Combemale 500 sampled clips, australian films, composite movie, Dan Angeloro, Dominique Angeloro, Hello Dankness, pop culture history, sampling film clips, Soda Jerk

Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, the video artist duo better known as Soda Jerk, has brought a bizarre and bracing new political satire to audiences with their film Hello Dankness. It is an assemblage or collage of narrative films, news footage, and clips from various media that tells the crazy story of American politics in the last few years. Created through sampling clips, gonzo editing, and by adding dubbed-in dialogue, the resulting hour and a bit of film feels like the intersection of experimental video art, documentary filmmaking, guerrilla activism, and cultural commentary, if it were built by the hands of filmmakers who were, as they say, seriously tripping balls.

Reviews

HELLO DANKNESS – Review by Nadine Whitney

June 19, 2023June 19, 2023 Nadine Whitney australian films, Dan Angeloro, Dominique Angeloro, Hello Dankness, Soda Jerk, Terror Nullius

Soda Jerk’s work is brilliant and challenging. Even when it’s funny you wonder if you should be laughing because there is despair running through the bones of it. It also makes you think about the pop culture you consume and the “real world” information you consume with it in tandem. Hello Dankness may be a document collated through many ages, but it is specifically now. Perhaps like meme culture itself it will disappear, or it will have a short-term viral impact. Hello Dankness doesn’t have the bite of Soda Jerk’s Terror Nullius, but it is far from toothless.