Interview with Jason Holliday aka Aaron Payne. House-boy, would-be cabaret performer, and self-proclaimed hustler giving one man's gin-soaked, pill-popped view of what it was like to be black and gay in 1960s United States. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Milestone Films in 2013.
포트레이트 오브 제이슨, 제이슨의 초상, Портрет Джейсона, 杰森的画像, Retrato de Jason, ჯეისონის პორტრეტი
USA USA
"I've suffered expensively."
He is immediately charming. Jason has one of those personalities you find where the person just draws you in, where the person is loud even while standing there without saying anything. In a different body, it might be taken as taking up space, as attention-seeking, but Jason's position in the hegemonic hierarchy of our hellish society makes his personality inherently defiant. He's a gay black man; if you did not know that his life was subject to the whims and hatreds of the white and the straight who have been indoctrinated by bourgeois lies, listen to any five minutes of his monologue. Even when he's not talking about it directly, his performance, his laughter, his inviting gestures…
At first it is performative, and what a performance. Jason Holliday struts and vamps around a Hotel Chelsea penthouse, constantly amused at his own struggle and all the colors of his life, which he relates to us with the skills of a master recanture. His joy is contagious. The camera is there to be seduced.
We slide in and out of focus. Now and then the film becomes visually murky, pleasingly abstract, but Holliday's stories and infectious laughter continue on.
By mid-film, naturalism begins to invade. Once the constant stream of alcohol and drugs start to settle in, Jason cannot help but show the strain of his own amusement. He paces more now, like a caged animal. Or he sprawls…
'Oh, this is my chance to really feel myself and say "I'm the bitch."'
"Don't tell them the truth. You're a colored boy. You're in there with two enemies, telling them all about your life."
I have wanted to see Portrait of Jason since it came out in 1967. I was never in the right place at the right time then it became a "lost" film. Now, thanks to Kickstarter and Milestone Films, it has been restored. Saw it at Burns Film Center last night. Wow. It's so cool when you see a gem you've sought for decades and it not only matches but exceeds your expectations.
I’m uneasy.
The entire time, it appears that Jason Holliday, homosexual extraordinare, is in control of the production. He tells the wildest stories, adorns himself in feather boas, impersonates the grand old hags of Hollywood, and shares both his wisdom and his pain in equal amounts. Over the course of the night, he gets drunker and drunker, but the act never lets up or crumbles. Jason is the bitch, and Clarke and her crew are all “amateur c*nts”. This is his world, and we’re lucky that he has decided to share it with those who don’t know what the life of a Black gay man is like.
And then Clarke, a straight and wealthy white woman who has been providing…
Boy this is a real headscratcher of a film that really has you vacillating from what is performative to what is genuine as we spend this (what seems) night with Jason Holliday being plied with liquor and drugs as we peel back layers of his personal makeup only to wind up in an awkward realization which could be a magnify glass at ourselves if we fully investigated our being.
It's honestly a roller coaster of a ride as we sit with this examination of one man's life. It's an uncomfortable process but I do think it's a richly rewarding one even if it made me feel difficult forcing me the voyeur watching to then become an antagonist watching Jason deal…
Nearly every shot begins out of focus, and so the beginning of nearly every shot is a moment of infinite possibility in which the camera's gaze has not yet defined how we see Jason. These may be the only "true" moments in the film, though they're far from the only honest ones.
I found myself thinking of THIS IS NOT A FILM; Jafar Panahi's not-film could be considered a descendant of Jason Holliday's not-cabaret act. The arc of the Jason presented in Shirley Clarke's film follows the planned structure of Holliday's act almost to the letter - hip cat to male bitch to tragic clown. "What I really wanna do is what I'm doing now, is perform," he says very…
☆"Finally. Oh, that was beautiful. I'm happy about the whole thing."☆
Famously noted by Ingmar Berman as "the most extraordinary film I've seen in my life," this is portrait from which you can't look away.
Well this one checks off a couple boxes for me: a scratch off the watchlist, a must-see for Pride Month, and a seminal film of a one-of-a-kind Black personality. Shirley Clarke's unique documentary Portrait of Jason is riveting in its one-man show and exhibition of fabulous bravado and entertainment. Filmed as an interview of sorts, the endlessly quotable Jason Holliday (né Aaron Payne) riffs on life, love, and American horseshit in the 1960s, and what a Black gay man has to put up with every…
Performance art.
“I’m a stone whore.” *giggles* “and I’m not ashamed about it.”
I felt so many emotions while watching this. At first had no idea how or what to feel after and felt quite somber. Overall, I think I’m in some kind of awe.
Jason Holliday is exuberant. The almost 2 hours of hearing him tell stories of his life was never dull. He is charming and completely knows how to draw one in. His way of story telling keeps you engaged while you watch him slowly descend into intoxication.
The power dynamics and struggles between the two parties is a fascinating aspect of this and sneaks up on you. Were the filmmakers exploitative and trying to harm him? Or did Jason use them exactly like he thought? Did both parties get exactly what they wanted out of this interview at the Chelsea Hotel? Ultimately, it leaves you with more questions than answers.
Letterboxd ate my entire review. Pain. Here's a shorter one:
This should be an intimate look into the enigmatic nature of identity which unspools the complexities of a gay black hustler, and thanks to Holliday's charisma it very nearly is. It's disappointing that it doesn't reach its potential due to the aggressively exploitative approach by Clarke and her crew. It's natural for the cinéma vérité approach to toe the line, but this film represents a specific lack of respect for its subject that damages whatever good was intended here.
