Hello Dankness – A Soda Jerk Reveal

 One heckuva political fable that bears witness to the psychotropic spectacle of American politics from 2016 to 2021, and the mythologies and lore that took root around it. Taking form as a suburban stoner musical, the film follows a neighborhood through these years as consensus reality disintegrates into conspiracy and other contagions. What unfolds is a rogue retelling of history in which hotdogs debate the culture wars, trashcans preach QAnon, zombies rally for revolution, and real events are refashioned as Broadway bangers from Cats, Les Miserables, Annie, and The Phantom of the Opera. There are songs and dancing, moments of menace and melancholy, shitposting and deep sincerity. Created with Soda Jerk’s signature methodology, Hello Dankness is entirely composed of sampled media. Utilizing extensive rotoscoping and digital VFX, the feature length narrative has been grafted together from almost one thousand film, television and audio sources.

“Fantastic. It is the best kind of satire in that it eviscerates its targets while being intelligent and hilarious.” – Sean Fallon, Film Inquiry

“How did we get from It’s a Wonderful Life to Qanon? Hard to describe, but making an indelible impression, this ingenious construct becomes a devastating indictment of a corrupt system…” –  Dennis Harvey, 48 Hills