A Spike Jonze/Arcade Fire collaboration, "The Suburbs"

Saw this a while ago. Been meaning to share it.

Here's what I found on the video (some details from Win Butler, Arcade Fire's lead):

“It’s not a video. It’s a short film; we’re still working on it. It’s like a science-fiction B-movie companion piece for the record. Basically, we played Spike some music from the album and the first images that came to his mind had the same feeling as this idea for a science fiction film I had when I was younger. My brother and I and Spike wrote it together, which was really fun– it was like total amateur hour. We shot it in Austin and a lot of kids are in the film, and it was great just hanging out with these 15-year-olds for a week and writing down all the funny things they said. It was cool to revert to being a 15-year-old for a little while."

Although it is set in Austin and seemingly reflects the suburban life for American youth, I think the themes are universal. The video reminds me of when I used to ride bicycles around my suburb with neighbours who lived nearby and not so nearby. We would race each other to the vandalised park, play rubberband wars, chase each other up to the shops where we would buy shandy beer (it was all so exhilarating). We'd pick up a couple of cap guns and have fights in our front lawns. This video brings me back to these feelings of being alive and free - my suburb was my turf, and nothing could stop me.