Amoré

Regular 8 film goes through a camera once, then gets flipped and run through again. When processed, the film is split down the middle and spliced end-to-end. I performed (unrehearsed) for a regular 8 camera as a boy as the film ran through the first time, exposing the right side of the film. Then I flipped the reel around AND flipped the camera around as I performed as a girl (in reverse) on the left side. I processed the film by hand and did not split it, so that the performances happen side-by-side. There is no editing in this film – it captures an immediacy that rarely occurs in film, but more often in video and live performance. This immediacy translates to the film as bodily gestures are enacted. The characters kiss in the middle, but because of the nature of the parallax view of the camera, their bodies do not line up. And because of the nature of regular 8 film, the frame line obscures their meeting. They can never meet. This film can be exhibited as a single-channel film or as a loop. In the looped version, the characters replay their same gestures endlessly, meeting but never meeting. The large cinematic soundtrack, so melodramatic, references Hollywood and contrasts against the miniature format of the film.