2008, video, 9:30 minutes

Empire contemplates the shifting use of corporate land and our biological connection to the post-industrial landscape. In this documentary essay film, anxiety about environmental contamination is the catalyst for an examination of the San Fernando Valley’s industrial history.  Focusing on the site of the former Lockheed aerospace plant in Burbank, this investigation reveals a past in discord with the contemporary landscape. Over time, this site has reflected the shift of the American economy from wartime production to post-cold-war consumerism, as well as the erasure of history that came with this transition. Searching the suburban environment for the remaining emblems of this collectively forgotten past, this film is not so much an attempt to unveil that which is hidden, but rather to reveal the concealment itself.