‘Portrait of Jason’ to be screened at Cimatheque

CAIRO – 23 October 2017: The film “Portrait of Jason” will be screened at Cimatheque on Tuesday and Saturday at 7 p.m.

The documentary and biography film, first released on September 29, 1967, was directed by Shirley Clarke.

The 90-minute black and white film focuses on an interview with Jason Holliday, a young black hustler, with whom Shirley Clarke is engaged in an occasionally acrimonious dialogue.

Holliday is the only person to appear in the entire film as he answers off-screen questions. Dressed in a tailored jacked and coke-bottle glasses, he laughs, drinks, smokes and masterfully narrates anecdotes from his life, ranging from the outrageous and entertaining to drearily repetitive and gauche.

Many critics at the time expressed disgust or nausea over the film, but others loved it, as it revealed inner thoughts and feelings.

It played at the New York Film Festival, and the actor and director John Cassavetes singled it out for praise.