Once 4:00 16mm 2000
A woman fantasizes about what she can get away with while remaining in bounds. Existential slapstick.
This film began embryonic life at a Labor Day cookout in 1996 in Iowa City. I was treated rudely YET AGAIN by a particular rude person, who then nonchalantly settled down with his beer. I complained to a friend, and she advised kicking this guy over in his lawn chair. There was no way I was going to do it, but I was pretty ticked, so I thought about it for a while. Could it be possible to behave that way, avenging everyday poor behavior? Maybe just once? The style was inspired by two short films I saw a couple of years later, Jane Campion’s Passionless Moments and Chel White’s Dirt. My sister Martha, a deadpan slapstick genius, came out to Iowa City to star, and we ran around town all weekend, shooting with a trusty wind-up Bolex.
