Matter Out of Place

A grieving mother ghost-hunts in Virginia City. A college student's field trip to the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel spurs a sexual awakening. A boy starts a wildfire on Peavine while trying to impress his crush. A schoolteacher is dismissed, and the aftermath unfolds in a schoolwide email chain. A woman tries on new identities at Burning Man. All must contend with their complicated histories and answer the question: is beingfroma placethe same as beingofit? Experimental in its approach and unflinching in its execution,Matter Out of Placeis an exploration of bright spots of humanity in dark underbellies, a feminist reckoning with "sin," and a love letter to the strange mirage that is northern Nevada. It inhabits physical and digital spaces with equal wariness, and its characters-filled with grit-navigate the fraught divide between appearances and reality, approval and judgment, gambling everything despite knowing that the house always wins.