PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967) in 35mm
About this Event
PORTRAIT OF JASON (Shirley Clarke, 1967, 105 min, 35mm from Kino International)
After nearly 60 years, the fascinating contradictions of Shirley Clarke’s documentary provocation PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967) remain irreconcilable. An architect of American independent cinema, Clarke legendarily filmed PORTRAIT in one 12-hour interview session in Clarke’s Chelsea Hotel apartment, capturing the testament of Jason Holliday, nightclub performer, hustler, and peerless practitioner of Black subterfuge. In near-relentless close-up, Clarke and partner/collaborator Carl Lee engage Holliday in a well-lubricated session of reminiscence, performance, and compulsory truth-telling. As their curiosity turns to open prodding, PORTRAIT OF JASON lays bare the conflicting impulses of neutrality and prurience that defined the burgeoning cinéma vérité movement. Electrifying and enervating, PORTRAIT OF JASON is a dense quagmire of observational overreach, queer opacity, and history from below — one of the most indispensable American films of any age. As Stephen Winter, director of CHOCOLATE BABIES (1996) and JASON AND SHIRLEY (2015) has observed, there’s “never [been] anything as singularly devastating, albeit brilliant, as PORTRAIT OF JASON.”
Following a 35mm screening of PORTRAIT OF JASON, Block Cinema and program organizers Nick Davis and Sarah Schulman will welcome filmmaker Stephen Winter for a post-film discussion with Justin Mann, Associate Professor of English at Northwestern.
Cosponsored by the Chicago International Film Festival and presented with sponsorship from the department of English and the Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, and with support from the Black Arts Consortium, the Black Studies Department, the Performance Studies Department, the Radio/Television/Film Department, the School of Communications, and the Screen Cultures Program at Northwestern.
About the Guest
Stephen Winter is an award-winning filmmaker, director, producer, and writer. His debut feature film Chocolate Babies (1996) was restored in 2021 by UCLA/Outfest and twice featured on the Criterion Channel. Stephen produced Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation (2004) which premiered at Sundance; and directed season 1 and 2 of the series The Space Within (2023-26), starring and co-produced by Jessica Chastain for Audible. His second feature film Jason and Shirley (2015) starring and co-written by Sarah Schulman and Jack Waters, premiered at BAMCinemaFest and the Museum of Modern Art. The new edition Jason and Shirley Revisited premiered at NewFest in 2025 for a 2026 roadshow. Stephen has worked on films with Lee Daniels, Allan Hughes, Gus Van Sant, Xan Cassavetes, Jim Lyons, John Cameron Mitchell and Soledad O’Brien. Playwright Jeremy O. Harris has called Stephen “the father of modern Black Queer cinema.”
Where is it happening?
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