Hey Bud (1987)

Overview

Hey Bud begins with the suicide of Bud Dwyer, a government official who killed himself on television. Writes Zando: "I view the suicide as pornographic. The suicide, exposed to a wide television audience, becomes a kind of sex act that plays upon the tension created between exhibitionist and voyeur. It forces viewers to take either an empathetic position vis-a-vis the exhibitionist, or to act as voyeurs (who release their repressed desire to see the forbidden face of Death). My interest is to understand the power seated in the position of the exhibitionist, and to explore that source of power for my own personal drama. Bud Dwyer gained power by authoring his own death, but his power was fatal: the instant power is taken via exhibitionism, it is lost through death. This is the traditional power for women who must seek power via exhibitionism and exploitation — they gain power only through death-of-self."