Truth or Consequences

Fun fact No. 1: the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, used to be called Hot Springs, but it was later renamed after a radio show. When we look at the contemporary town of Truth or Consequences, its pop culture name takes on a bizarre and rather disturbing overtone. The place appears entropy-stricken, deserted, dated, ossified. Little happens under the clear blue skies separating the southern landscape from the realm of the stars. Fun fact No. 2: there is a spaceport nearby. For the documentary filmmaker Hannah Jayant, that provided the impulse for a fantasy about a possible future in which people leave the planet in order to spread the spores of civilization. Truth or Consequences leans in the direction of a mockumentary but is devoid of the comedy that is a standard feature of the genre. The futuristic accents reinforce the melancholic tone of the whole—they make us look at the eponymous town as a relic of a bygone time.