Removed and The Morphology of Desire Clare Stewart September 2001 CTEQ Annotations on Film Issue 16 Removed (1999 USA 8mins) Source: NLA/CAC Filmmaker: Naomi Uman In Removed, Naomi Uman physically erases the female body from old 16mm porn using nail polish remover and household bleach. This gorgeous attack of beauty and domestic product on celluloid results in a series of animated white ‘holes’ writhing orgasmically in the place of porn stars. The leering men are captured in various inadequate poses and the original dialogue tracks remain, complete with badly dubbed exchanges. The hole in the film becomes an erotic zone, a blank on which a fantasy body is projected. This brilliant work is unusually precise: it is politically subversive, pornography in its own right, sassy and extremely funny. * * * The Morphology of Desire (1998 USA 6mins) Source: NLA/CAC Filmmaker: Robert Arnold In this lush, pulsating trash-symphony, Robert Arnold combines digital and film processes to morph an eternal series of romance novel covers. The audio track throbs with the heartbeat of the cover girls as the film plays out the complex codes of Mills and Boon style desire. The transitions from cover to cover heighten the presence of the gaze as the heroine pivots and turns, knowing she is watched by the predator male (always lurking behind her) and the paperback consumer. The finished work, with its digitally morphed transitions, was filmed frame by frame with a Bolex camera, for the final translation back to 16mm.
