Masks/Self-Portraits
1/2 inch open-reel videotape Black & White Sound 1970 15:42
Summary: An abstract performance film, shot in the Basement in Stepney, in which four men interchange roles for different sketches with the use of masks.
Title number: 21518
LSA ID: LSA/28221
Description: A performance with masks, based on repetition and the shuffling of performance roles. First, we see one white man walk through a door with a camera twice. First, he enters with a mask; next without. Two different men walk through the same door, turn to their right and pick up the telephone. The Black man performs the same action three times, twice with a mask, once without. We can hear someone behind the camera cue ‘Okay’, before the person steps through.
In the next part of the video, we see two different performances of the same skit. Two men are sitting side by side. They discuss their various pedagogical approaches to teaching children collective responsibility. One person suggests locking them in a darkroom, while another points out the extremity of the action, considering the cost of the equipment in the darkroom. The next performance involves two different men in masks. They mime and re-stage the same debate and pedagogical dilemma of giving trust to children. The man on the right notes how this teaching experiment has harmed others by damaging their negatives and equipment in the darkroom. He says, “You don’t teach someone how to swim, by dropping them in the swimming pool and going, ‘good luck!’” The final performance is performed by the same two actors, except with their masks off. They perform the same situation again, with notable differences in body language, less miming, and changes in variation of the dialogue. The final section of the film shows children roller-blading around the same room: the child enters the room once bare-faced, then wearing a mask.
Credits: Basement Project (Filmmaker)
Keywords: masks; play
Locations: Stepney
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