About

Please note: 5,000 Feet is the Best will screen with Akram Zaatari's Letter to a Refusing Pilot 2013 (34 min) and Harun Farocki's Images of the World and the Inscription of War 1988 (73 mins). It will not screen with Harun Farocki War at a Distance 2003 as advertised in the cinema brochure.

'5,000 Feet is the Best is based on two meetings with a Predator drone sensor operator, which were recorded in a hotel in Las Vegas in September 2010. On camera, the drone operator agreed to discuss the technical aspects of his job and his daily routine. Off camera and off the record, he briefly described recurring incidents in which the unmanned plane fired at both militants and civilians - and the psychological difficulties he experienced as a result. Instead of looking for the appropriate news accounts or documentary footage to augment his redacted story, the film is deliberately miscast and misplaced: It follows an actor cast as the drone operator who grudgingly sits for an interview in a dark hotel. The interview is repeatedly interrupted by the actor's digressions, which take the viewer on meandering trips around Las Vegas. Told in quick flashbacks, the stories form a circular plot that nevertheless returns fitfully to the voice and blurred face of the drone operator - and to his unfinished story.' Commonwealth Projects

Ages 15+