In Ghosts of Sugar Land, a circle of friends in Texas reflects on their relationship with a man they refer to as “Mark.” The film begins with a social media post in which Mark shares that he has crossed the border to Turkey to join ISIS. Horrified by this development, the men remember a lonely outsider whom they embraced and invited into their Muslim community, though fissures developed when Mark’s views became increasingly extreme. A fundamental question haunts them: did Mark truly believe the radical rhetoric he shared online, or is it possible that he was an FBI informant? To protect themselves and their families, each man interviewed wears a plastic superhero mask—Mario, Iron Man, Chewbacca, and many more—while speaking. Gazing at the camera through these plastic molds, their eyes and bodies are their only instruments of visual expression, a provocative distortion that underscores the unease and vulnerability described in their stories. ST