In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.
Direction
Jordan balances reverence with critical eye on Smith's contradictions.
Production
Rare archival footage rescued from Smith's hoarder-level apartment.
Editing
Collage style mirrors Smith's own fractured, maximalist aesthetic.
Director
Mary Jordan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Smith's apartment was so packed with costumes, props, and rotting food that friends called it 'the Plaster Foundation' — he literally lived inside his own unmade films.
Flaming Creatures' 1963 obscenity conviction helped define American avant-garde cinema as legally protected speech — Smith's chaos became constitutional precedent.
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