Video of the Day

So I'm back in L.A., busy with a couple of new film projects, and admittedly getting a bit lax in KBHM daily entries. Apologies. But rest assured. Ken Burns and his metaphoric ilk still hate Mexicans and I will continue to blog about it when necessary. Good news, however, is that in the course of my research for the above mentioned projects I've rediscovered an old fave filmmaker of mine, Sadie Benning. 

Back in the early 90s, at the age of 15, Benning was given a Pixelvision camera by her dad, experimental filmmaker James Benning. The Pixelvision was a "toy camera" made by Fisher-Price that recorded grainy black and white video images on a standard audio cassette tape. And while the camera's now discontinued it is, of course, highly coveted by certain eBay lurking filmmakers. 

The lo tech visual aesthetic of the Pixel Vision, along with the camera's unique white audio noise and its distinctive CLICKS you heard when the camera was turned on and off were transformed by Sadie Benning into this formally interesting, mesmerizing, totally DIY punk rock look, the perfect aesthetic to capture her first person, self revelatory art pieces which eventually their way into the Whitney Biennal. From an informative introductory essay on Benning by Melissa Rigney.

Benning demonstrated an early ability to manipulate images and create sustained narratives. She culls from a wide variety of sources including television, magazines, newspapers and popular culture...Her intensely personal and autobiographical videos document the dreams, desires, fears, and fantasies of a teenage lesbian in the process of defining self, sexuality, and identity. They delineate the social and sexual straitjacket that girls are expected to conform to, while working out strategies of transgression and rebellion in an effort to create an identity space beyond the boundaries of heterosexuality and gender conformity.  

Not only that, but the videos looked pretty badass too. In fact, the first piece I ever made -- a collaborative personal video essay critiquing San Antonio's Fiesta Week called 'Puro Party', admittedly pretentious, admittedly derivative, but unabashedly Chicano, circa 1993 -- was pretty much a direct rip off of Benning's unique style. I cringe when watching it now, but, like they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 

Here's one of Benning's more famous pieces, "Me and Ruby Fruit."

For more examples of Pixelvision work go here, here, here, and for a Don't Miss TV commercial advertising the legendary camera go here.