A Gray State Explores How the Politics of Paranoia Destroyed A Young Family
In January 2015, David Crowley, an aspiring filmmaker and Iraq War veteran, was found dead along with his wife and young daughter in their suburban home in Minnesota. The death was a shock to the community and to the couples families, who couldnt imagine who couldve executed their loved ones so brutally. But the crime also caught the interest of the alt-right community, who had followed the rise and subsequent fall of Crowley, best known for his unfinished film project, Gray State.
Gray State gained a substantial following after Crowley released a trailer for the project, one that showed a bleak future for America, dissolving into a dystopian police state where civil liberties were stripped away by the government. Gray State tapped into many of the fears laden in conspiracy theory communities, such as FEMA camps and the idea that the U.S. government was planning a full-scale war with its citizens who, after being stripped of their guns, would be rendered helpless. In some respects, Crowleys vision felt as timely and vital to the libertarian community as The Handmaids Tale might feel to many in the liberal community today. Gray State was more than a film to them, it was a warning of a future that still might be prevented if enough people sat up and paid attention.
In the documentary A Gray State, we meet Crowley through a dizzying array of media unearthed by director Erik Nelson. Even in the age of social media, where the most minute and mundane are meticulously documented for a life lived on the internet, Crowleys output 13,000 photographs and hundreds of hours of video feels excessive. Its the selfie culture; anything anyone does is significant and should be shared, and if we share enough we might be famous on YouTube, Nelson tells us in an interview during the Tribeca Film Festival. But even still, he was surprised by the videos and how Crowley took care to document things he felt were important his daughter describing a bloody scrape or his wife claiming she had contact with a demon and framing them the way a filmmaker would.
But as Nelson explains, the excessive footage didnt just provide insight into the lives of Crowley and his family. It ultimately explained their tragic end, which was not the result of a government conspiracy to keep Crowley quiet but instead a tragic murder-suicide committed by a man under enormous pressure. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the unexpected success of Gray States trailer and the public clamoring for Crowley to deliver a full-length film begin to chip away at him. But the onslaught of behind-the-scenes material of Crowleys home life also show the subtle dysfunction in his relationship with his wife, Komel, which feels very controlling. It is something reinforced by her business partner, who often lamented that she felt as if her friend wore two faces, her own and the one her husband wanted her to wear.
https://nonfics.com/a-gray-state-review-3e732f9d8d68
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)I fucking hate my interest in human rights and equality as having anything to do with mere "identity".
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)If only they would take themselves out and leave their better halves alone. It never works that way though. They have to lash out because of their own inadequacy.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Randian delusions of grandeur, a brain that can't tell reality from InfoWars fantasy anymore, cutting off his wife's family, etc... In other words just your prototypical Libertarian Bro...
The irony isn't lost on me that Mr. Hardcore Individual Liberties turned his wife into a slave and a prisoner with no contact with the outside world...
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Being macho- dominating women- beats any and all concerns about policy or direction the country is taken. All they know is they want to shut the door after themselves and humiliate women.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Some ethnic and religious communities have unique issues that need to be addressed as such AND there are broader economic issues that effect all of us.
If our government can work on massive trade deals AND run multiple wars at the same time AND give massive bailouts to Wall Street, they could address Black Lives Matter and some economic restructuring at the same time.
The real problem is who will be served by a particular policy change, us or the 1%.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Services but damn this sack cloth and ashes crap does not sit well w voters. or me.