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First, the Recap:
Commemoration. How important is it that we are left with memories of things past that held specific and special sway over us. Whether it was an individual, an event, a cause, or anything else that is meant to leave a lasting impression, how we choose to keep the reminiscing alive and echoing through the years is often through paying tribute to them in whatever ways we can so that their legacy remains a part of us and the greater community around us.
Exploring local icons can be especially fulfilling when an artist chooses to formulate a homage and celebration of a person who, as mentioned above, had some form of influence on their lives, more so creatively. There’s something to be said for bringing to light the career and life essence of someone since passed away whose reputation at the time of their success’ height remains mostly enigmatic accept by those from where familiar with her work, lived in her town, or whose existence was introduced to a young man by his beloved grandfather and a certain film.
This is the story of a grandfather, a film, a dancer, and a young boy who ultimately as a man chose to present a fellow artist’s journey through the medium of film.
Next, my Mind:
Just screened between Aug 23-24 at the 2019 High Coast Film Festival sponsored by and/or in association with Illambra, Kramfors Kommun, Film Vasternorrland, Europeiska Unionen, Region Vasternorrland, Lansstyrelsen Vasternorrland, and NBV, this 7-minute indie film effort from director Michael Morris is a highly esoteric, deeply personal piece of equally eccentric and idiosyncratic filmmaking that explores the life and times of Dallas, TX-based artist Juanita Slusher aka: Candy Barr, an exotic dancer known for the stag film “Smart Alec”, and who always deemed her dancing a serious form of creative expression. Beautifully set to the song “Autumn Leaves” as sung by Dallas-based singer Lily Taylor, it’s a strangely moving tribute to a local Dallas icon from the 50’s and 60’s via her favorite song to perform to while showcasing distinctive elements of her professional career via veiled footage from the stag film that made her famous. The film carries itself as a straight-up short film, but certainly seemed to this critic to fall into, at minimum, a pseudo-documentary classification as well, given the primary intent to recall the memory of a real person from local Texas history that had an impact on the filmmaker after having seen Slusher’s film thanks to his grandfather.
I cannot deny I had my initial hesitations when first reading a general synopsis about the project and that it involved footage from a stag film, as my own personal preferences when it comes to sexual content in films tends to run on the conservative side, especially when I feel the content is far more gratuitous than actually needed to present the narrative at hand. Here however, worries were pretty immediately assuaged when realizing this wasn’t some random excuse to throw a bunch of sex on the screen via the “Smart Alec” footage utilized. Rather, the views are obscured, blurred, and hazy with purposeful intentionality to more so draw the viewer’s attention to the beauty of the song that forms the “dialogue” of the film and the completely unique filming techniques undertaken to create the elegy-infused styling the film means to present when showcasing it all as that keenly personalized salute to someone the filmmaker appreciates and desired the world to know about. As to the totally peculiar, quirky visuals, it is an exposé on avant-garde production technique that employs cyanotype chemistry to manifest the arresting blue hues dominating the film, aided in its look by having laid the film itself out in the sun. Rarely have I personally seen this kind of presentation, and it certainly sticks out in its singleness.
Given the film’s intent and execution, there are no actors to credit here for their performances other than posthumously to Slusher herself and to Taylor for her hauntingly apropos rendition of Slusher’s favorite song. Therefore, in total, “Blue Movie” is a perfect example of experimental cinema that many might consider polarizing to mainstream audiences, but here it really is, as Slusher’s own similar thought when it came to her dancing, creative expression at its best, used for meaningful purpose as the elegy to a star of yesterday not many ever knew about–until now.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
Here is a link to the split audio release Michael A Morris and Lily Taylor, released in tandem with BLUE MOVIE