Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century

The three-channel 16mm film Another America Is Possible (2017) is the conclusion of Kline’s Civil War chapter. In contrast with the darker scenarios explored in other parts of that project, this film visualizes a radical utopia. Set in 2043, the year when the United States is predicted to become a majority-minority country, the work depicts a vision of an America at peace that has chosen healing over harm and unity over division. In the film, a diverse group of people is celebrating a summer holiday, but it is not the Fourth of July. Here, the Confederate flag, which served as the “battle flag” of the pro-slavery secessionist states during the American Civil War and continues to be used as a symbol of white supremacy, is buried and burned. With a familiar visual style that draws equally on home movies and advertising, Another America Is Possible is an attempt at a different kind of progressive political messaging for the twenty- first century that aims to reach a wide audience. The work proposes that new inclusive traditions can replace America’s tainted myths and rally a fractured country toward the dream of a multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic democracy.