During the 1970s the local Dutchess shopping mall had been both the commercial and community centre of the small New York town of Fishkill. But as newer and shinier retail stores sprung up in the area they stole the Dutchess’ crowds, rendering it obsolete. After the Dutchess closed its doors for the last time two decades later, a flea market began operating at what was now seen as a gigantic skeleton, similar to the many other dilapidated eyesores littering the country like a graveyard.

While filming the ragtag community that had grown out of the flea market the filmmakers learned that the mall was going to be demolished to make room for yet another corporate home-improvement store, the third of its franchise within twelve miles. It struck them that here was living proof that the American Dream was in perpetual decay.

Using unfiltered interviews and surprising moments in the lives of its shoppers and vendors Fish Kill Flea offers a strangely poetic meditation on who we are becoming as a people. With a stylized wit, this heartbreaking yet quietly funny portrait raises questions about our disposable culture and sings a requiem to how things used to be.

This film will be screened with The Rich Have Their Own Photographers

Fish Kill Flea has a great, early Errol Morris feel for American weirdness. - Premiere