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“Gleefully goofy...says more about the
ambiguities of the reception and appropriation of pop-culture icons, in just
over five minutes, than do most academic treatises.”
David
Chute,
LA
Weekly
”Hilarious...”
Chicago Reader
Jan-Michael Vincent
Is My Muse
A Video by Jim
Tushinski
A Gorilla
Factory Production
Animation by
Tim Haselman
Running Time:
6:36
Completion
Date: 2002
www.jimtushinski.com
To book
filmmaker interviews or appearances, please contact Jim Tushinski by email at
info@jimtushinski.com.
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When fiction writer Jim Tushinski set out to
make his first short video, he never imagined it would play to packed houses
on four continents. Tushinski’s video, Jan-Michael
Vincent Is My Muse, combines pirated video clips, classic Bubble Gum
music, childhood photographs, and South Park-like animation to tell
the story of nerdy 13-year-old Clarence J. Rinehart and his fixation on 70s
movie star Jan-Michael Vincent.
The video has been a selection of over 30 film
festivals since June of 2002, including Los Angeles’ Outfest, the San
Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and the Mardi Gras
Film Festival in Sydney. The Madrid Gay and Lesbian Film Festival showed the
video on two consecutive nights as the opener for the critically acclaimed
independent feature L.I.E. It proved so popular that the video was
given two more screenings during Madrid’s Gay Pride celebration in 2003.
Unlike many other popular short films on the
lesbian and gay film festival circuit, though, you won’t see Jan-Michael
Vincent Is My Muse released on video or DVD. “I made a conscious decision
to create a video that appropriated elements of popular culture without
fussing about whether I have the right permissions,” Tushinski explains. “It
was part of the aesthetic of the piece. Kids absorb popular culture everyday
and it becomes a part of their personality. They don’t need permission from
EMI or Sony to do that.”
Tushinski and his animator Tim Haselman created
the video with no budget and a lot of ingenuity. “It was very much a Judy
Garland/Mickey Rooney ‘Let’s put on a show’ experience. I think everyone can
relate to falling in love with a movie star when you’re a kid. For gay men
and lesbians, though, it’s much more confusing. Clarence doesn’t understand
why he’s so fascinated with Jan-Michael Vincent, but the audience does.”
Despite the video’s popularity, Tushinski is
in no hurry to get the permissions he needs to release it. “Maybe it will
become a cult favorite and pirated versions will be sold on eBay,” he jokes.
“That seems appropriate.”
Jan-Michael
Vincent Is My Muse deals with the following subject areas:
Popular Culture, Gay Teens,
1970s, Hero Worship, Jan-Michael Vincent, Motion Picture Actors
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