James N. Kienitz Wilkins
Public Hearing

JAMES N. KIENITZ WILKINS was awarded a grant for Public Hearing, a 60-minute experimental cinematic re-enactment of a real public hearing. The screenplay is derived from a public-domain transcript generated in the small town of Allegany, New York, which chronicles a debate surrounding a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter expansion in the area. Public Hearing synthesizes a fictional feature-film and a factual document. The original transcript was discovered on the Allegany town website, where the supporting PowerPoint visuals are also available for download. These visuals will be used in the film as props in the same way they were used during the real event as evidence. That which is not available for download, or is not accounted for in the transcript, will be imagined. Through such methods, the film will challenge the boundaries of intellectual property and public domain, and in so doing will belong to neither fact nor fiction.