Self Portrait
2021 · 10m · USA
Directed by Gus Aronson
Genres: drama, experimental, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, sensual, tender
A young photographer and his male model drift from studio to bar to dance club to motel after a charged portrait session. The camera that started the encounter keeps changing hands, and so does the gaze.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Take a queer hookup short, hand both characters the camera, and watch the power dynamics jam-shift. Most films about looking don't think this hard about who's holding the apparatus.
Inverting the photographer's gaze in real time by passing the lens between the two characters is the formally exact move this material needs — Andrew Haigh's Weekend with Tillmans patience. Beautifully located.
Inverting the photographer's gaze by literally passing the lens between photographer and model across studio, bar, club, motel is a clean formal idea about gaze and consent. Andrew Haigh's Weekend is a high comparison; the patience pitch suggests it earns it.
Reviews
Sensual experimental film which spotlights and inverts the concept of the photographer's gaze.
Aronson finds a nice balance of the artful, provocative and contemplative.