Synopsis

R.E.M. wander through the fantastical landscape of R.A. Miller's Whirligig Farm, surrounded by spinning sculptures, handmade figures, children, dogs, and weather-beaten structures. The film moves less like a conventional music video than a dreamlike visual collage, using silhouettes, extreme close-ups, slow motion, and abrupt changes in scale. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry appear as visitors within Miller's strange folk-art world. Five songs from the first side of Reckoning provide the soundtrack, creating a continuous 20-minute sequence.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was conceived as a visual companion to the first side of R.E.M.'s 1984 album Reckoning rather than as a conventional promotional clip for one single.

• Its title refers to the "left" side of the original vinyl record. The soundtrack runs through "Harborcoat," "7 Chinese Bros.," "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)," "Pretty Persuasion," and "Time After Time (AnnElise)."

• Filming took place in 1984 at R.A. Miller's Whirligig Farm in Rabbittown, Georgia, outside Gainesville. Miller's kinetic sculptures and folk-art constructions dominate the film's visual identity.

• The shoot took place under dark, rainy conditions, with tornado warnings in the forecast. The crew continued filming the farm, its visitors, the band, and Miller himself.

• The visual style relies heavily on close-ups, silhouettes, slow motion, and rephotography. Film frames were photographed during editing, with images enlarged or reduced without following a conventional narrative logic.

• The project was made very inexpensively. Peter Buck later recalled that the original request was for something approximately four minutes long, but the finished piece became a 20-minute film.

• MTV did not broadcast the complete film. Individual sections, including the "Time After Time (AnnElise)" passage, appeared through music programs such as *The Cutting Edge*.

• The film later found a lasting home on R.E.M.'s 1987 video release *Succumbs* and on the compilation *When the Light Is Mine: The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987*.