The United Nations is Decadent and Depraved is a collaborative project between the filmmaker Mark Boswell and the photographer Anton Koslov Mayr featuring photographs, artifacts, and a 26-minute film installation inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s short story; “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” The project was filmed during the 2008 Session of The United Nations in New York. Through creative measures, Boswell and Koslov Mayr obtained U.N. credentials, gaining access to General Assembly speeches, conferences, press room activities, and the building at large. The project attempts to draw a critical portrait of fleeting relevance for the only international body of law in the world.
The project was presented in Moscow and in New York in 2009. It was nominated for the 2010 Kandinsky Prize.
Written, Directed and Produced by Mark Boswell & Anton Koslov Mayr
Starring Jason Shurte, Olga Kopenkina, Richard Hurloc, Micha Lazare
Director of photography — Anton Koslov Mayr
Edited by Mark Boswell
Art Director Ben Wallcot
Narrated by Jason Shurte
Soundtrack by MATMOS
Additional soundtrack by Per Platou, Surganova & the Orchestra.
Based on “Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved” by Hunter S. Thomson (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
Many thanks to Elissa Mailander, Susane Boswell, Veronika Georgieva, Andrey Bezukladnikov and Vladimir Dudchenko, Craig Jennings and Yuri Yarmolinsky.
Shot on location in New York, May – November 2008
Marc Boswell and Jason Shurte on the set of the project, September 2008
