Excerpt of Roswell (Brown, 1994.)

Memory and Travel as a Conduit of Place

Bill Brown’s Roswell has a very interesting take on place and time, and what it means to be lost, literally and metaphorically. Roswell is a town in New Mexico, USA, and is home to a supposed alien crash site. It is also the place in which this film’s philosophies start. However, Roswell is not the “place” explored in this film; instead, it is the road that is the environment explored. Using the potential alien of the crash site, or “cosmic tourist,” or”star boy,” as a stand-in for someone lost. He also relates being lost to having amnesia and the memory tied within landmarks.

… UFOs are just events that transform, not unlike volcanic eruptions or plate tectonics. And the geography UFOs transform is in our heads or in our hearts.”

I find Bill Browns metaphors of the road trip and driving to be rather relatable. It is well known that America is a very car-centric country, and we, unfortunately, often have to drive to get anywhere. I, myself, had to drive 25 minutes every day to get to school. In the end, it’s like a psychological conditioning to enjoy car trips– which I do; I’ve gone on one with my friends every summer for the past 3 years. Even so, in the moments I found myself not wanting to go home, I would drive in a random direction to get lost, to go somewhere new, to simply drive. It is meditative to be on the road; it provides a place where I can finally think.

Within this film, Brown explores the idea of time as place, head and heart as geography, and driving as purpose, even when one does not know where to go. He ponders the idea of time travelers who “find traveling so excellent and exciting,” and yet time is the real enemy. It abducts memory and turns us all into amnesiacs wandering the world looking for purpose. One day we will all be lost, and one day we will all be that little star boy who crash-landed onto this distant planet with nowhere to go but to wander.

… maybe after so many miles, it was the shock of recognizing his [The “Star Boy’s”] amnesia as something like a universal condition rather than a personal pathology that made him stop caring about where he was going just as long enough that he stopped going anywhere at all.”

The sound of Roswell is primarily non-diegetic, consisting of voice-over and music. The instances of diegetic sound are often times so subtle that I did not notice them at first. The soft engine of a car going by, the echoes of wind, and very few instances of the acousmatic. The most prominent diegetic sound is the superimposed screeching of the marker.

As humans, we are naturally the most drawn to the human voice and spoken word. The voice-over of Bill Brown is almost like spoken-word poetry. It has a performative aspect in its inflection, but it also sounds slightly whispered, making it more intimate, which is supported by the recurring idea of the secret diary.

Second to the voice-over, the music behind it is what my ear is next drawn to. The music, as music often does, guides the somber, reflective emotion of the film. The marimba, to me, invokes a sense of curiosity and wonder as it flows in and out of the music, gone in moments of solemn contemplation. Brown expertly places silence throughout the film in moments encouraging reflection or to indicate a change in direction of his flow of thoughts.

Reference

Brown, B. (1994). Roswell. [online] Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/76877472 [Accessed 4 Oct. 2026].