16mm, b/w, silent, 10:45, 2004

Possible Models begins by outlining a news story about John Ashcroft’s announcement in June, 2004 that a Somali immigrant to Columbus Ohio (my home state), was charged with plotting to blow up a mall. The Somali, Nuradin Abdi, was arrested in November, 2003, and held for more than 6 months before being formally charged. The film continues with three parts detailing the history of shopping malls, the construction of mega-malls in Dubai, and the hyper-capitalist project, The Freedom Ship, a floating mile-long home for the wealthy, before returning to the story of Abdi and what might await him in the U.S. justice system.