Michael Morris
2021Blue Movie
Michael Morris
Blue Movie is an elegiac tribute to the late Juanita Slusher, a Dallas-based exotic dancer well known in the ’50s and ’60s as “Candy Barr”. Footage from the stag film Smart Alec, a film given to me by my grandfather, is used as the majority of the source imagery, set to a rendition of “Autumn Leaves” performed by Dallas based vocalist Lily Taylor. The song was noted by Candy Barr as her favorite to dance to, while also noting that she viewed her dancing as a form of creative expression. The silver-based emulsion of the film was replaced with cyanotype chemistry and laid under the sun to create the blue image.
Blue Movie
Confessors
Michael Morris
Confessors is a short, personal essay that attempts to retrace bits of lost or inaccessible family histories. The artist’s grandparents give him a can of film marked “x-rated” without explanation, as well as an old 8mm camera. The film was lost before he was able to watch it. The resulting video is a consideration of the ephemeral nature of home movies and the lives they can’t help but fail to preserve.
Confessors