"Inspired by Mark Twain's book Life on the Mississippi (1883), which recounts his time as a Mississippi River steamboat pilot, Brown's 2019 film of the same name explores the history and identity of the river from Twain's era up until the present. Retracing Twain's route from Memphis, Tennessee, to New Orleans, Louisiana, Brown finds the contemporary path far less romantic but no less intriguing than Twain did a century and a half earlier."
"Pondering what it means to know something as massive, complex and dynamic as the mighty Mississippi, Brown encounters museum models, riverboat simulators and an intertwining network of financial, environmental and cultural interests along the way. The viewing experience mirrors a riverboat ride, with Brown's deliberate pace slowly revealing new scenes to assimilate into the larger picture. Ultimately, the work arrives at something quietly ambitious - a contemplation of the human need to understand and control, and the ultimate impossibility of ever fully doing so."
Bill Brown retraces Mark Twain's Mississippi route from Memphis to New Orleans, juxtaposing Twain's 19th-century steamboat romance with contemporary, less romantic realities. The journey encounters museum models, riverboat simulators and an intertwining network of financial, environmental and cultural interests shaping the river's identity. The pacing deliberately mirrors a riverboat ride, slowly revealing scenes that accumulate into a complex portrait. The work interrogates the human impulse to know, map and control vast natural systems while showing how scale, dynamism and competing interests make full understanding and total control ultimately impossible.
Read at Aeon
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