Montreal filmmaker Steven Woloshen has made numerous cameraless films in the McLaren vein–including many in Cinemascope, including Get Happy (1999), Ditty Dot Comma (2001), Bru Ha Ha! (2002), and Cameras Take Five (2005). He has published a DIY guide to direct filmmaking entitled Recipes for Reconstruction: The Cookbook for the Frugal Filmmaker, and has also made several films produced by biological decay. The Homestead Act (2009) refers to the 1862 legislation that promised individuals 160 acres of land west of the Mississippi. The film creates an analogy between the misuse of land by the act’s overzealous and inexperienced farmers, and the lack of care taken to preserve film; it is the third in the filmmaker’s Dead Sea Scrolls series, in which he rotted three loops of Edison Westerns. Woloshen tells enterprising analog filmmakers to “sprinkle eight ounces of icing sugar liberally onto the film. Cover the film with a generous helping of black soil…It is best to do this step in the late spring or early summer.” The goal is to transform conventional cinema into abstract cinema via naturally occurring processes.