hd video / 25:10 / language: english

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A juxtaposition of Marlen Haushofer's "The Wall" and Bernard Suits' "The Grasshopper" begets the creation of a solitaire game for an underappreciated demographic and a discussion on the nature and downfall of a possible Utopia.
"The Wall", whose excerpts are read by an American woman self-isolating in Boston during the COVID-19-pandemic, tells the story of possibly the last woman on earth after a cataclysmic event, which in literary circles has been discussed as both a post-apocalyptic as well as a utopian novel. In contrast, "The Grasshopper", a largely forgotten work by equally forgotten philosopher Bernard Suits, re-tells Aesop's fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper" from the grasshopper's point of view to support Suits' definition of the word "game", and how games might be the constituent pieces of a possible Utopia. Interwoven with these two complementary thesis statements are excerpts from other post-apocalyptic stories, the history of Elizabeth Magie's "The Landlord's Game", an attempt to create a card game for a lonely woman, and the relationship between work and play. Written, directed and edited by Lino Heissenberg; partial voice-overs by Jamie A. Muth and Meyrick Kaminski.

A companion piece/artist statement pertaining the works' relationship to the COVID-19 pandemic can be watched here on this page.