“Portrait of Jason” director Shirley Clarke and her partner, Carl Lee, while remaining off-camera, employ cinéma vérité techniques, such as prompting, as they introduce us to hustler Jason Holliday (born Aaron Payne) as he narrates his life story. Jason holds us enraptured as he bares his soul and, directly to the camera, tells us about his relationships, his ambitions, and his struggles. For the entire movie, he is the sole presence on-screen, and his “performance” encompasses songs, costume changes, and theatrical monologues.
Blending cabaret flair with raw confession, Jason gradually reveals the sadness underlying his theatrical exaggerated persona in a tour de force which meets most of the specifications of “High Camp” as outlined by Susan Sontag’s in “The Partisan Review (1964),” and referenced in “Queer Film Under the Hays Code (1934-1967),” the first essay in this two-part series. The film oscillates between comedy and tragedy, exposing Jason’s contradictions: his flamboyant self-presentation versus the pain of marginalization and the struggle for survival.
Essential viewing.
TRIVIA: Director Shirley Clarke was the sister of novelist Elaine Dundy and, from 1951 to 1964, the sister-in-law of the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan.
STREAMING: Criterion Collection
Seventy Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (1934-1967)
https://thebrownees.net/seventy-queer-films-of-the-new-hollywood-1967-1981
