The Drowning Room (2000)

• 66%
• 2000
• Patrick Jolley
• Reynold Reynolds

A sequence of domestic vignettes from the sunken suburbs. In the house, the stagnant atmosphere has slowly thickened to liquid. The inhabitants try to carry on as normal but beyond the borders of asphyxiation; communication is limited and expression difficult. Filmed entirely underwater in a submerged house to create an atmosphere unlike any other film.- Shot in East Williamsburg, BrooklynA seemingly ordinary family is seen going about its daily business in a house that is completely filled with water. The family members, either refusing to notice this fact or simply taking it in stride, continue their activities as best they can: shoveling their fish dinner into their mouths as tiny food particles waft around their faces like plankton, reading waterlogged newspapers, and petting their suspiciously stiff-limbed cat as if all this were perfectly normal. They seem to exist in a state of suspended animation, perhaps thinking that if they pretend the water isnt there, it wont drown them. When viewed in the context of recent global events, the familys domestic isolation can be seen as a metaphor for political isolationism and a willful disconnection from the events of the world outside.