Whose Portrait? Fabulations and triangulations in Shirley Clarkes Portrait of Jason (USA 1967)

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Whose Portrait? Fabulations and triangulations in Shirley Clarkes Portrait of Jason (USA 1967), Vortrag am 26.06.2022 im Rahmen von "Facing_Drag in Popular Cultures and Performing Arts", mdw Wien, 23-26.5.22, organisiert von Evelyn Annuß, Silke Felber, Julia Ostwald Shirley Clarke (1919-1997), as she described herself once, a “white lady director” made films that focused almost exclusively on Black figures. PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967), her fourth feature length film, a ‘portrait’ of Jason Holliday – black, gay and a self-declared hustler – raises questions about truth claims on all levels: what do we see when we see this ‘portrait’? Who is before and behind the camera, whose camera is it anyways, whose identity, whose story, and who else is (not) in the picture? I propose to think about this film and the many questions it raises as a set of triangulations (aesthetically, politically and by way of gossip and speculation).

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Facing Drag in Popular Cultures and Performing Arts

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