Commodity Prison(s)

This video is a response to two movies I saw recently, movies that are in many ways connected to one another. The movies are Dušan Makavejev's SWEET MOVIE and Pier Paolo Pasolini's SALÒ. Hard movies to love, and in the case of SALÒ, a movie some seem to believe was partly responsible for Pasolini's brutal murder, not long after its release. SWEET MOVIE also led to its share of sorrow for some of those involved in its making.

Both movies are about (among many other things) property, consumerism and human nature at its most extreme and repulsive. People do not tend to thank others for making them look too closely in the mirror.

In part because using their original approach to these subjects would probably result in instant censorship and banning from various video sites, I've taken another tack here, one that I expect will probably result in no shortage of bewilderment among some, because its impact is so oblique.

If you want to see this in HD, it may be best to follow the links to vimeo.

Commodity Prison from Shadowgate Imageworks on Vimeo.

This is also a sort of response to discussions that have been running, off and on, in a vimeo group where I've been a bit vocal, and where I first learned of the works of James Benning, who may or may not have found inspiration in the same two movies.

That discussion can be found at The Pictures Don't Move and in particular, in the forum for that group.