Portrait of Jason
Leaving Soon
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1h 47m
Leaving March 1
Directed by Shirley Clarke | 107 mins | 1967
A distillation of a single 12-hour interview in a room at the Chelsea Hotel with the charismatic Jason Holliday (“real” name Aaron Payne), a gay, African American cabaret dancer, part-time hustler, and full-time raconteur, Portrait of Jason grows from a moving, fascinating monologue testimonial to something still thornier and deeper, both a confrontational standoff between Holliday and filmmakers Clarke and Carl Lee, poking holes in their subject’s storytelling, and an inquiry into issues around representation and the privileged gaze of the camera that upends many still-prevalent assumptions in documentary filmmaking. “Transfixing, troubling, immensely powerful… a rocket ship into the future of gay liberation.”—Mark Harris, Film Comment
Up Next in Leaving Soon
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Ornette: Made in America
Leaving March 1
Directed by Shirley Clarke | 85 mins | 1985
“Discovering the work of filmmaker and the Film-Makers' Cooperative co-founder, Shirley Clarke made me aware of the wide range of cinema’s possibilities. This 1985 documentary shot in collaboration with the late Ornette Coleman, using a... -
The Connection
Leaving March 1
Directed by Shirley Clarke | 110 mins | 1961
“Shirley Clarke’s The Connection based on and adapted by Jack Gelber is a film way ahead of its time. Arguably the first film to use the “found footage” trope to tell a fictional story. This film blew my mind when I first saw it, the d... -
Orchard Street
Leaving March 1
Directed by Ken Jacobs | 27 mins | 1955
Ken Jacobs documents the tradition of eager haggling and bargain hunting that once took place on the Lower East Side commercial thoroughfare of the title. Screening as part of a selection of five experimental shorts from the Brooklyn-born J...
