Project Brief

The slowest, most elegiac song The Long Afternoon has recorded was inspired by a brief period of optimism many observers felt when people in some of the most repressive countries in the world protested, and in some cases toppled, their governments. The problem with revolutions, The Long Afternoon sought to warn all concerned, is that they are instigated by revolutionaries. Even the best intentioned of whom tend to epitomize the very qualities they fought against, once they become the establishment.

Visual A

Visual B

The Revolutionary

Medium and Message

For the visuals, archival footage of almost any revolutionary would have served. No particular sentiment or point was intended by the selection of the one in the video instead of any other.

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Viewpoint

The actions of “The Revolutionary” are observed by a dedicated follower, who is by the leader’s side as their forces overcome the status quo and begin to set up a new order in their own image. Idealistic notions of what the new administration will do differently soon fall apart in the face of unanticipated complexities and the difficulties inherent in creating rather than critiquing a system. The observer remains in the palace as the Revolutionary’s new system begins exacting terrible prices from the people they ostensibly serve. At last, the process comes full circle and begins again.

I Believe

The optimism of the observer and the desire to improve the lives of people through systemic change is laudable. “The Revolutionary” is not sympathetic to the Revolutionary, but it empathizes with the observer’s disillusionment and horror at becoming just another instrument of control and repression, despite the lofty goals that once inspired the people he let down.

Kids with Dead Men’s Genes

As “The Revolutionary” comes to close, the observer discerns the faces of the victims of the last revolution in the young faces of the new generation of revolutionaries, visible both in the protests happening daily on the street, and in the nightmares that plague the observer’s sleep.