Postcard from Sun City, Arizona

Joshua Oppenheimer juxtaposes images of life in an Arizona retirement community—drawn from television commercials—with a talk radio interview featuring a female convict praising her experience on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's chain gang. The work contrasts two different kinds of sales pitches, each operating at cross-purposes. Oppenheimer strips the idealism from the advertising imagery through video distortion and electronic interference, while editing both the video and audio tracks until the convict's reflections on life and death create a disquieting counterpoint to the commercial vision of an ideal life. The piece follows *A Brief History of Paradise as Told by the Cockroaches* and *Market Update* as another pointed critique of consumerism as a deceptive promise.