This American Life’s Chris Wilcha Directs New Fol Chen Video at Eyjafjallajökull

June 21, 2010


As longtime fans of Chris Wilcha, the Emmy Award-winning director of Showtime's This American Life, it's interesting to see him doubling back into music videos, though it's a platform with ostensibly more viewers than any paid cable station. Despite the shorter form, though, what Wilcha ended up producing for "In Ruins" is as high-quality and beautifully tactile as anything he's done for the small screen. Enlisted by the Highland Park high-pop ensemble Fol Chen to travel to Eyjafjallajökull in the wake of its eruption, his camera follows two sweet-looking Icelandic kids as they trudge their way through the dust, swathed in protective mouth-and-eyewear. The landscape is barren and grey, and as backdrop for a song that's irrepressibly happy, it feels like a peaceful acceptance at the hierarchy of nature—calm with the knowledge that the earth is vast, and we are essentially its little (pesky) dwarf cells. Meanwhile, after the jump, watch a somewhat creepy video (also directed by Wilcha) wherein actor Brian Cox (the eccentric shrink from Running with Scissors, among other things) reads the lyrics to the song.





This American Life’s Chris Wilcha Directs New Fol Chen Video at Eyjafjallajökull