Alexandra Orekhova “House” documentary film review
Lower Merion High School Grad makes a film about American Culture for her senior project 2021
Alexandra Orekhova’s documentary “House” in a moving and symbolic depiction of America as an abandoned home, invites us on a tour to explore the hearth of American Culture. America is more than an idea—it is an embodiment of a people who choose to live together. The use of architecture is a metaphor for the stability, structure and foundation of a country. What happens when those buildings and homes deteriorate, are not maintained or appreciated? Our eclectic architecture is a mirror to the diversity of our country and how we share a solid identity.
The use of John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band’s song “Oh My Love” overlapped with Andrew Wyeth’s iconic american paintings strike a chord in the first few moments of the film. Through Orekhova’s vision, use of classical, contemporary music and powerful imagery, the realism that most perceive in Wyeth’s paintings is layered with the abstraction that Wyeth saw in his own work and the combination of that interplay makes this film profoundly emotional and personal. The film is rhythmic, poetically and aesthetically driven by creative scene transitions and we are treated as guests at the table of a meaningful conversation about our Nation.
Alexandra Orekhova gives us a window into this “House” of America through interviews with Americans with very different backgrounds to see what makes America a “Home”. The thoughts expressed in those interviews are as diverse and cohesive as America’s historic architecture and the shared hallmarks of freedom, optimism and opportunity have remained intact until now, when we begin to see the cracks in the walls. Those great homes we once knew have been neglected, abandoned, and replaced by something quickly built with materials that do not last.
Alexandra’s final scenes about culture are shot in sepia, a color associated with 19th and 20th century photographs and drive home the message that there is an urgency to rebuild, that Americans still have a foundation and a common vision to return home. The tour ends with an Astraunot’s perspective looking out into the vast void of space. He sheds light on how small our planet is and shares the loneliness of being far away from home, an angle that few of us have and may never see.