Portrait of Jason

Friday, April 19 - Thursday, May 16, 2013

New digital restoration!

“What I really want to do is what I am doing now: perform,” says Jason Holliday in “his” portrait. Jason – black, gay and a self-declared hustler – directs himself, follows directions, narrates, invents, confesses, makes claims and ultimately challenges the camera, the film team composed of Shirley Clarke and Carl Lee (with whom she also collaborated on The Connection and The Cool World) and us, the viewers, as far as our notions of identity and truth are concerned. Reviews of the film continually point out that it cannot be categorised, not as documentary or phantasmagory, as audition reel or feature length interview. PORTRAIT OF JASON is all of those things at once and yet something else too: an extravagant dialogue with a camera and an audience. Since its initial success and distribution through the Filmmakers Coop, it has only been available on VHS and, since 2006, on DVD too; in the latter case, with the added speculation that the film’s persistent unavailability through the years can only be understood as a material expression of its categorical ambiguity. Now PORTRAIT OF JASON has finally been restored: “This is a picture I can save forever” (Jason Holliday). – Berlinale

“The most extraordinary film I’ve seen in my life.” – Ingmar Bergman

“Says more about race, class and sexuality than just about any movie before or since.” – Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

• Country USA
• Rating NR
• Year 1967
• Running Time 105 minutes
• Director Shirley Clarke

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.