Amidst the incredible challenges that the world faces, one community within the city limits of Orlando, Florida which represents a much darker and disturbing microcosm.
RED, WHITE & WASTED, co-directed by Andrei Bowden-Schwartz and Sam B. Jones, finds a family of local enthusiasts who enjoy the practice of mudding, the ‘sport’ of big-wheeled monster trucks in a mudhole where people gather from all over the continental America to ride their vehicles in a major party-above-party atmosphere.
Unwanted pregnancies, alongside domestic dysfunction and social violence and reactionary racism in the context of Trump’s America, with a pro-Putin attitude from one such individual featured in this documentary. The father, struggling enough with an epileptic daughter, is scrambling around for metal and other scrap requirements, but it is clear that pawning such materials doesn’t pay as much as it does from international communities like China and Japan and determination to make those all-important bills is not going to sustain him or his family for a substantial amount of time – and the homestead where they are based is clearly not going to last much longer on current evidence….
Fans of the Wilem Dafoe drama THE FLORIDA PROJECT, which takes place in the shadow of Disneyland Florida like this documentary, are going to find something worthwhile whilst watching RED, WHITE & WASTED, even if it does retain a rather uncomfortable viewpoint in the context of the broader issues that we are all waking up to on a daily basis.
It is in turns a gritty and grounded analysis which needs to be brought out into the open – and it is clear that the viewpoints of the community probably won’t endear themselves to the ongoing vogue to be more woke in the grand scheme of things.
You might not find these people that endearing in the context of your own lives, but they are certainly compelling enough to watch for the very discomforting attitudes they have towards community, family and political beliefs.
