Something terrible has befallen New York: a natural disaster, a cyber attack, a mass-possession of souls?

Like avatars running the levels of an apocalyptic video game, Ringmasters Corey, Jay Donn and Marty McFly invoke the city and its networks as a space of terror, mutation and magic. Meanwhile, documentary shots of Far Rockaway show the city’s attempt to manage disaster in real life: police patrol the shattered flood zone as citizens line up with jerry cans. Scenes on iPhone screens play like distress signals transmitting in a blacked-out world where no survivors or friends can receive them.

“Flexing,” “bone breaking,” “pauzing” and “connecting” in nighttime streets, hotel hallways and a posh Park Avenue apartment, the dancers improvise scenes suggesting digital death matches, stop-and-frisk situations, and disorienting man-machine interfaces. Shot in the East New York section of Brooklyn around the time of Hurricane Sandy, Ditch Plains free-styles an abstract narrative about the fatal coupling of subjects and systems in a time of permanent crisis.

With: Ringmasters Corey, Jay Donn, Marty McFly, Jim Fletcher, Vibez, Asha Flasha, Damian “Gucci-ino” Buchanan, Lil Buck, Spyda Da HatMan, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Princess Lockeroo, 8 Ball, Ace, Dez, DVS, Flizzo, Maze, Optimus, Problemz, Scorp, Lakela Brown, Marie Karlberg, Jackie Klempay, Michael Stynes, Vanessa Cintron, Prynce Ptah, Michael Sanchez

Cinematography: Till Megerle, Editing/Sound Design: Steffen Martin, Additional Camera: Loretta Fahrenholz, Connor Owens, Additional Editing: Lena Hatebur, Production Coordination: Inka Meissner, Text: John Kelsey, Color Grading: Ben Brix, Title Animation: Elisabeth Schulze, Interlude Animation: Steffen Martin, Titles/Graphic Design: Lina Grumm/HIT, Music: Dan Aran, Timo Ellis, Steffen Martin