David Byrne
True Stories

Few films have had such a defining influence on the playful, postmodern aesthetic of the 1980s as the 1986 underground classic True Stories. The satirical comedy-musical by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne is a parody of small-town America, the American Dream, and consumer culture. Everyday life blends with nostalgia and longing, coalescing into a deliberately kitschy aesthetic that also resonates in Katherine Bernhardt’s work.

In the film, Byrne visits the fictional small town of Virgil, Texas, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary celebration, the so-called ​“Celebration of Specialness.” With a surreal perspective, the film caricatures small-town life and takes the absurdities of 1980s American everyday culture to the extreme. Blending kitsch, absurd humor, and a disarmingly warm, dreamy vision of Americana, it creates a portrait of American society that is as whimsical as it is affectionate.