Super-8/color/silent
9 minutes
1977

Produced, directed, shot and edited by Ericka Beckman
Starring Paul Mc Mahon
Featuring James Welling, Matt Mullican, Nancy Chunn, April Gornik
Music and vocals by Ericka Beckman, Brooke Halpin

“Sound and image substitute for one another as carriers of the film’s continuity. I am the performer: I either command the action or I am acted upon. The soundtrack generates my actions, which either moves forward or repeats itself, and I search for the consciousness of regularity with the aid of rhythm.

The film explores the phenomenon of when two things are perceived at the same time – as when two images combine in a double exposure. There is an ambiguity in their hierarchy. They might be perceived apart, joined together, one after the other, or one dominates the other out completely. This ‘relationship’ is what I am intuitively exploring. Film sees the unconscious neither as rational, or irrational. Film is a system of relations.” — E.B. 1977

• “Ericka Beckman Works 1978 – 2013” MAGASIN, Centre National d’Art Contemporain (press release), 2014
• Taubin, Amy. “Fairytales of New York.” ARTFORUM MAGAZINE, April 2011
• Banes, Sally. “Imagination and Play: The Films of Ericka Beckman.” MILLENNIUM FILM JOURNAL, Winter, 1984
• HORROR PLENI (exhibition document), 1980