THE BACKSPACE OF AMERICA

VIDEO: Semi-documentary, 45 minutes, Mini-DV
A Video tour through Wendover with Matt Coolidge, director of The Center for Land Use Interpretation. Wendover is a small town on the edge of the salt flats of Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah, a remote region that is intensely industrialized. The state line bisects Wendover, creating two distinct halves: the gambling boom town of Nevada's Wendover, and the stagnated Utah half, dominated by the cluttered remains of the Airbase. The land around Wendover is bombed, strafed, and dusted with chemical and biological agents. Military operations continue in the surrounding three million acres of restricted-access lands. Large-scale industries remove salt, and process minerals from the flats, and copper and gold are extracted from giant pits in the mountains. Hazardous waste facilities and obsolete chemical weapons have found refuge in the remote, nearly uninhabitable landscape.  “The Backspace Of America” documents the human interpretation of the land in the region around Wendover, focusing on The Great Basin as a ‘backspace of America.’ The video is a rough-edited documentary that reveals the clashing aspects of the region’s life: The History of the Enola Gay Project (caring the atomic weapons to Japan); self sufficient BBQ parties on a still partially active military base; an artist’s project featuring a gps-enabled three-wheel bike; a target museum; Wendover Airfield as a Hollywood set; car races along the atomic bomb loading pit; rock concerts in the Enola Gay airplane hangar; problems of land management; Skull Valley’s Goshute Indians; and the worlds largest radioactive dumpsite.