Incommunicado

Family and friends try to reach Doug by phone, but it's all quiet on the other end of the line. He doesn't call back, even when they leave a message. Doug's answering machine takes all the messages regardless of who the callers are, without passing judgment, without talking back. Compliments, invitations and insults entice Doug to respond, but a reaction fails to come. On the basis of dozens of messages, the filmmakers Matthew Meyers and Brendan Kenney sketch a picture of the absent main character. With their roughly edited, associative flow of images, the directors call up a feeling of distance and absence, a world in which a machine is the only thing keeping Doug in touch with his surroundings.