The website Craigslist is a digital grab bag. Anyone is allowed to post anything there: from house sales ads to open job applications and of course all sorts of variations on the “man seeks woman” theme. Performance artist and behavioral researcher Samira Elagoz used Craigslist to meet a veritable cavalcade of men, including a magician, an exhibitionist, sadist video artist and a soft-core porn director. She films the encounters. Sometimes a relationship develops, but the more frequent outcome is a slightly fearful situation with violence simmering under the surface. It makes little difference in which part of the world her subjects are living – they are all lonely in some way, shape or form. Elagoz puts herself in a position to be the object of the male gaze, but she captures this gaze and returns it.
Afterwards, we’ll talk with the maker Samira Elagoz!
https://vimeo.com/185726770