Video Remains: Synopsis
In 1993, Alex shoots an interview with her best friend Jim as he tries to recount his life as he is dying. In 2004, she re-works this haunted video, playing it in real-time but letting bleed in a host of present day interviewees who also reflect upon AIDS, death, activism, and video. What remains is this woman’s contemplative, loving memorial to one gay man lost to AIDS that also marks what changes and lasts after death, across time, and because of videotape.
Synopsis
In 1992, James Lamb, an off-Broadway actor, requests that his best friend, Alex Juhasz, videotape him. He was dying and wanted to explain his life; he wanted to be remembered. He was also probably suffering from AIDS dementia, so the interview is part rant, part performance piece, part eulogy. After he died in 1993, the 55-minute tape sat on her shelf. What was do be done with this video legacy?
In 2004, Alex resurrected the tape to make the experimental documentary, “Video Remains.” Jim’s interview plays in real-time, to be periodically interrupted by a host of present-day voices and images, interviewees who, like Jim, reflect upon AIDS, death, activism, and video.
Experimental Documentary produced by Alexandra Juhasz, Mini-dv; 54 mins, 2005
