A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHASING STORMS presents a history of the tornado as both a destructive weather event and an American icon. Local monuments to past tornadoes intertwine with mythologies of settlement and displacement. An amateur storm chaser questions his own agency and fate. The CEO of a Wizard of Oz-themed storm shelter company describes a growing market in a world of increasing weather uncertainty. Unfolding episodically, questions of memory, inequality, colonization, climate change, and disaster capitalism arise as the film examines legacies of weather within the region colloquially known as “tornado alley.”

70 minutes | 2K DCP | 2025

SCREENINGS:
Visions du Réel
DMZ Docs
Chicago International Film Festival
Tallgrass Film Festival
Tacoma Film Festival
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
IDFA

TRAILER