Two lovers flee a dystopian surveillance state and head for the hills in Benjy Kirkman's promo for legendary rock outfit Garbage.

The video for There's No Future In Optimism is a cinematic, retrofuturistic vision - shot in Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands - boasting a grungy monochromatic cinematography and grade to match the defiant thrust of the song's lyrics. 

Using 16mm zooms and handheld camerawork director Kirkman and DoP Will Gething thrust the viewer into the world of the artistic young couple's shoes as they flee the concrete city, tracked by CCTV cameras. Retro-futurism and a return to nature is at the forefront of this creative, with a visual aesthetic that gels with the dark glamour of the band's classic videos of the Nineties. 

“I love the title," says Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson, of the song - which comes from the band's forthcoming 8th album. 

"The band sent it to me and I was like, 'This is great. I’m keeping that.' But the lyrics are an action against that title. Because if we allow our fatalism or our negativity to really take over, we will crumble. It’s about a city, in my case, Los Angeles, but it could be anywhere where bad stuff is happening.

"After the George Floyd murder, which is one of few things in my life that I wish I’d never seen: I was changed entirely by seeing the footage of that cop kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. In Los Angeles there were huge protests and a lot of upheaval after that. Above our house in Hollywood, there were helicopters all day long, for days on end. It was really precarious, chaotic and terrifying.”