Super-8/color/sound
23 minutes
1978

Produced, directed, shot and edited by Ericka Beckman
Vocals: Ericka Beckman and Bob Getter

“Mario was a construction; the girl tried to imitate it. But she knew there was more that she could do. Mario limited her. In my imagination I saw a competitive relationship that could only go so far. In making this film I combined the ‘real’ with the ‘constructed’, proving for myself that these two aesthetics could not fuse together; they had to remain apart working in tandem as a relationship, thus their meaning now included competition and cooperation.” — E.B.1978

“Beckman began making films in the mid-1970’s using the then new technology of Super-8 sound film. Her first films were neither documentaries nor narratives, but rather idiosyncratic constructions that triumphed over the limitations of the narrow gauge format with their ingenious special effects. These remarkable early works have the vitality of primitive cartoons, and are similarly filled with comic violence and dreamlike condensation. As inventive as the filmmaker is, she is too obsessive for mere formalism. If Beckman’s narratives are often cryptic, her work is preoccupied by a recurring core of themes- competition, role-playing and what she calls ‘the coordination of the self in the physical world’. In virtually every one of her movies some young (usually female) individual learns, through trial and error, how to act in (or upon) the world. In the Super-8 WE IMITATE; WE BREAK UP a set of life-sized marionette legs teach the filmmaker/protagonist how to dance and play a version of soccer, and then chase her all over the lot when she runs away with the ‘loot’.” — J. Hoberman

“Best Film” — The Village Voice, 1979
“Best Emerging Filmmaker” — The Soho Weekly News, 1979

• “Ericka Beckman: Augmented Reality and Cinema Games.” HIGHLINEART, March 2015
• Beeson, John. “Ericka Beckman.” monograph by jrp|ringier, 2015
• “Ericka Beckman Works 1978 – 2013” MAGASIN, Centre National d’Art Contemporain (press release), 2014
• Schneider, Anja Isabel. “Ericka Beckman at Le Magasin, Grenoble.” KALEIDOSCOPE, Winter 2013/14
• Scheller, Jörg. “Ericka Beckman at Kunsthalle Bern.” FRIEZE, September/ October 2013
• Stefan, Olga. “Ericka Beckman at Kunsthalle Bern.” ART IN AMERICA, September, 2013
• Dika, Vera. “The (Moving) Pictures Generation”, published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, New York, NY
• Harbison, Isobel. “Image Games.” FRIEZE, October, 2012
• Taubin, Amy. “Fairytales of New York.” ARTFORUM MAGAZINE, April 2011
• Biovier, Lionel, & Stroun, Fabrice. “A Conversation with Ericka Beckman.” Novembre Magazine, Fall/Winter 2011
• Cotter, Holland. “At the Met, Baby Boomers Leap Onstage.” THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 23, 2009
• Hoberman, J. “Big and Life.” THE VILLAGE VOICE, June
• Hoberman, J. VULGAR MODERNISM. 1991.
• Banes, Sally. “Imagination and Play: The Films of Ericka Beckman.” MILLENNIUM FILM JOURNAL, Winter, 1984
• HEAD HUNTERS (Exhibition document), 1983
• Rabinowitz, Ellen. “Ninth Season of ‘Video/Film Review’.” THIRTEEN (press release), September, 1983
• Dika, Vera. “Ericka Beckman’s ‘Out of Hand’: In Search of Meaning.” DREAMWORKS, Fall 1982
• Rickey, Carrie. “Behind the Super-8 Ball.” THE VILLAGE VOICE, May, 1981
• Hoberman, J. “The Avant-Garde Now.” FILM CULTURE, May, 1981
• Hoberman, J. “Review: Out of Hand.” ARTFORUM MAGAZINE, January 1981
• Gross, Linda. “Personal Visions of Worlds Unhinged.” LOS ANGELES TIMES, January, 1981
• Baim, Richard. “Ericka Beckman: Movies for the New American Adult.” REAL LIFE MAGAZINE, Summer 1980
• HORROR PLENI (exhibition document), 1980
• Carroll, Noel. “Review: Filmworks ‘79.” SOHO WEEKLY NEWS, 1979
• Hoberman, J. “The Independents.” FILM CULTURE, January, 1979
• Gross, Linda. “Quirk Ethic of Ericka Beckman.” LOS ANGELES TIMES, April, 1979
• Hoberman, J. “The Best of Apples and Pears.” THE VILLAGE VOICE, January, 1979
• Hoberman, J. “Vanguard ’79: Critic’s Award.” THE VILLAGE VOICE, December, 1978
• “Best Film by an Emerging Filmmaker.” SOHO WEEKLY NEWS.
• Hoberman, J. “Encore Series: Ericka Beckman.” (series document)
• Filmmakers: Ericka Beckman (exhibition document)
• Hoberman, J. “Voice Choices.” THE VILLAGE VOICE.