This short film employs an anonymous hotline to elevate the voices beneath Vermont’s F-35 flight path, the first urban residents to live with one of the military’s most controversial weapons systems overhead.
Tranquil scenes of unassuming neighborhoods near Burlington International Airport are juxtaposed with voicemails of the unheard, those drowned out by the ear-shattering “sound of freedom.” Exploring the relationship between picturesque residential areas and the deafening fighter jets overhead, Jet Line is a poetic portrait of a community plagued by war machines, documenting untenable conditions in a small city once voted one of the best places to live in America.
Do you know how much cash those things burn in their fuel tanks? I bet they could pay off the mortgages of everyone in their flight path with what they’re paying for fuel.
I live not too far from an army base whose helicopters regularly fly low over my neighborhood, rattling the windows and pictures on the wall, sometimes as late as 11:30 at night, and I think about this every time they pass.
The military is a boondoggle. It’s little more than a scam on a massive scale to funnel money out of taxpayers into the pockets of industrial contractors.