In conjunction with the current exhibition Strange Bedfellows: Collaborative Practice in Queer Art and in partnership with Bucknell Film/Media Studies, we will be screening Shirley Clarke’s groundbreaking 1967 documentary, Portrait of Jason at the Campus Theatre on October 29 at 7:30pm. In this film, Clarke trains her lens entirely on Jason, a gay, African American cabaret performer for a two-hour conversation. The result is a riveting character study of this very charming, charismatic, yet troubled man as he tells his story of aspiration and hardship in a world not yet ready to accept him.
Melissa Anderson of The Village Voice writes that this film “says more about race, class, and sexuality than just about any movie before or since.”
Watch the trailer below: