Dark Meat or White Meat?

2006
15 minute single-channel video

Every Thanksgiving since 1987, the US President has pardoned two turkeys so that 45 million may be slaughtered guilt-free. The annual turkey pardon exemplifies the absurd and arbitrary exercise of executive authority. With the President's sweeping powers, questions of life and death, freedom and imprisonment, hinge upon taste and personal preference akin to the choice of dark or white meat. The video offers counter-narratives as commentary on this highly prejudicial process: a humorous history of turkey pardon ceremonies contrasted with ticker-tape statistics detailing controversial pardons and the plummeting number of pardons granted since the 1980's.

Part of the project was published in Considering Forgiveness.