Eye Contact

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Negative, Oil Factory Films
Written and Directed by Jamie Thraves
USA, 2005
6 min.

I am momentarily breaking from the regular format of multi-video programs to show Jamie Thraves’ short film Negative. When I came across Negative it shone so brightly that I was unable to pair it with anything else for fear of overpowering the rest.

In Thraves’ homage to Hitchcock he shows how Laura Mulvey’s often-critiqued notion of the penetrative gaze is still alive and well in contemporary media. The viewpoint is strong and fixed. The music is leading. As the story unfolds, the piece vacillates wildly between homage and satire of its inspiration material while still rolling ahead to the exciting climax.