➤ SETH PRICE, from p.36
titles that have nothing to do with
the soundtrack competing for the
viewer’s brain cells. “Redistribution”
is deeply engaged with the
way the Internet has changed image
making and perception, and it
reproduces the same demands on
the attention economy. Price’s work
has used the Internet as an archive
of source materials; this idea
might be banal now but he notes
that it seemed innovative when he
started doing so in 2000.
The fact that his subtitles so
often focus on storytelling might
seem perverse when “Redistribution”
is so far removed from ordinary
narrative cinema, but they
make sense if one thinks about
the kinds of stories it tells in other
ways. For one, “Redistribution”
shows an artist fi guring out how
to speak to an audience — the earliest
“lecture” included took place
in 1999, but it just consists of him
talking to a cheap video camera in
his bedroom. Now he’s comfortable
talking to large crowds in Amsterdam
and Singapore.
It’s easy to feel nostalgic these
days for the old, weird Internet,
before its initial promise turned
into a selection of social media,
porn, streaming music, and video
tightly controlled by a few corporations.
I fi nd it hard to separate my
reaction to “Redistribution” from
the fact that I’m now working on
a found-footage short whose images
are taken entirely from videos
downloaded from YouTube. It
was a small revelation to realize
how I could edit 30 seconds of a
➤ EUREKA DAY, from p.36
the characters are largely one-dimensional.
But they and the piece
remain interesting — though more
in a cerebral than emotional sense
— and the cast is excellent. Tina
Benko as Suzanne and Elizabeth
Carter as Carina as especially
well-matched in their confl ict. As
Don, Thomas Jay Ryan is detailed
in his acting, creating a wellmeaning
man in the crosshairs
of an affl uent, self-involved crowd.
K.K. Moggie is a wry Meiko, carrying
on an affair with the married
Eli, played by Brian Wiles in a
charming parody of the rich, white
man constantly interrupting women.
much longer clip, fl ip its context,
add a voice-over, and try to use it
to create something new, even if
I’ve seen plenty of fi lms that do the
same. Price has frequently taken
violent imagery from the Internet,
including Daniel Pearl’s beheading
and gruesome photos of accident
victims, and altered it to add
a degree of abstraction and distance.
One of his lectures brings
up the history of the sampler, the
fact that it was extremely expensive
until the mid-‘80s, and so its
initial use came from composers
linked to universities, not the hiphop
producers with which it’s now
associated. Price has made music
inspired by that period, including
an eerie cover of the Velvet Underground’s
“Sister Ray.”
Price’s use of digital images feels
somewhat sterile. He’s aware of
that and brings up the concept of
the “uncanny valley” — the point
at which CGI starts to look so real
that it becomes creepy. But the
constant changes of “Redistribution”
do something more than just
reproduce the electronic distraction
that is a hallmark of the present.
The fi nal words of “Redistribution”
describe a culture that denies
its capacity for real-life violence
while obsessed with consuming
images of it. But the last images
suggest the resilience of serenity
and beauty. Like “Redistribution,”
the future is still unfi nished.
REDISTRIBUTION | Directed
by Seth Price | Self-distributed |
Opens Sep. 13 | Metrograph, 7 Ludlow
St. btwn. Canal & Hester Sts. |
metrograph.com
But, given that it’s his son who
falls ill, his character is also the
most complex.
The preschool library set by
John McDermott is perfect down
to the smallest details. The innocence
and primary colors it portrays
become a trenchant metaphor
for the confl ict between the
world we want and the harsh reality
of life.
EUREKA DAY | Walkerspace,
42 Walker St., btwn. Church St. &
Broadway | Through Sep. 21: Wed.-
Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun.-Mon. at 7 p.m.;
Sun. at 3 p.m. | $65-$80 at artful.
ly/store/events/18103 | One hr., 40
mins., with intermission
WHERE CULTURE
TICKETS FROM
KINGSTHEATRE.COM
1027 FLATBUSH AVENUE
BROOKLYN, NY 11226
IS KING
GayCityNews.com | September 12 - September 25, 2019 37
/metrograph.com
/KINGSTHEATRE.COM
/GayCityNews.com
