We Pedal Uphill

A collection of 13 short films—each one set in a different state—examines various ways in which our lives have been shaped by recent cataclysms (9/11, Katrina, the Bush administration). Some are good: “One Wrong Turn” follows a man who drives many hours to thank the boater who saved his family during that natural disaster in New Orleans, only to have that Good Samaritan reveal a particularly unheroic side. Others, like “Subtraction & Division,” are clumsier in their social commentary. Yet all of Roland Tec’s miniportraits highlight the snake oil hucksterism and manufactured fear that still beset America.