Film

The Bell, the Digger, and the Tropical Pharmacy

2013 · 21m

This video was shot in a US-owned pharmaceutical plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico. It records the sounds and movements of a “sonic digger,” whose bucket has been replaced by a large cast-iron bell that destroys the interior of the building. The modified machine is thus transformed into a “counter-memorial” instrument that marks the occasion of the closure of this significant workplace, a site associated with progress and health. Through music, it excavates the historical connection between medicine, sickness and cure, and the neocolonial framework of US-Puerto Rico relations embedded in the very fabric of the building.

• Jennifer AlloraDirector
• Guillermo CalzadillaDirector

Release date

January 1, 2013

Status

Released

Original language

English

Runtime

21m