Alternately satirical and sobering, Our New President is a found-footage documentary by Maxim Pozdorovkin assembled from YouTube videos and Russian television clips broadcast during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Timely, provocative, and unabashed, the compilation reveals and effectively renders a schematic of meme mechanics and propaganda—not to mention connecting some ominous dots—as demonstrated in the pro-Trump/anti-Clinton mission of Russia’s state-run media. As clip after clip of audacious fabrications unfold, the distinction between absurdity and veracity is blurred beyond recognition (and belief), and the film continues in the path of Dziga Vertov, Ken Jacobs, and Bruce Conner: critiques born not in camera, but in compilation. The resulting assemblage is sometimes irreverent, sometimes bracing; the relentless distortion on display manifests as a fun-house mirror, reflecting Trump’s U.S. origin story as much as depicting its Russian parallel. As becomes abundantly and disturbingly clear, modern misinformation knows no bounds, or borders.  TM

Q&A following screening