THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE
USA
2011
70 minutes
For her first feature-length project, New York-based experimental filmmaker and film curator Marie Losier embraces a traditional documentary format, even if somewhat loosely structured, to narrate the rather unique love story between British musician and experimental artist Genesis P-Orridge (né Neil Megson) and American performance artist Lady Jaye (née Jacqueline Breyer). Orridge and Lady Jaye not only married but also underwent cosmetic surgery to become similar to each other, in search of a communion in androgyny that was shattered by her untimely death in 2007.
Ms. Losier's brief film, not surprisingly, underlines the couple's desire to blur the borders between life and art, fulfilling its stated desire of being a record of this life lived as an art project but with a strong parallel strand focussed on the actual life and times of each one. But beyond that record, which will undoubtedly be of interest for those who have followed Orridge's career since experimental-art group COUM Transmissions and post-punk industrial rock group Throbbing Gristle and for those interested in the extreme fringes of modern art, ms. Losier doesn't bring any particularly noteworthy outside point of view, nor does she manage to instill on viewers unfamiliar with the life or work of the androgyne musician the sense that The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye is anything more than a home movie.
Directed, photographed (in colour) and edited by Marie Losier; produced by ms. Losier, Steve Holmgren; music by Bryin Dall; additional editing, Marc Vives.
A Marie Losier/Steady Orbits production. (World sales, Cat&Docs.)
Screened: IndieLisboa 2011 official selection, advance DVD screener, Lisbon, April 26th 2011.
2011
70 minutes
For her first feature-length project, New York-based experimental filmmaker and film curator Marie Losier embraces a traditional documentary format, even if somewhat loosely structured, to narrate the rather unique love story between British musician and experimental artist Genesis P-Orridge (né Neil Megson) and American performance artist Lady Jaye (née Jacqueline Breyer). Orridge and Lady Jaye not only married but also underwent cosmetic surgery to become similar to each other, in search of a communion in androgyny that was shattered by her untimely death in 2007.
Ms. Losier's brief film, not surprisingly, underlines the couple's desire to blur the borders between life and art, fulfilling its stated desire of being a record of this life lived as an art project but with a strong parallel strand focussed on the actual life and times of each one. But beyond that record, which will undoubtedly be of interest for those who have followed Orridge's career since experimental-art group COUM Transmissions and post-punk industrial rock group Throbbing Gristle and for those interested in the extreme fringes of modern art, ms. Losier doesn't bring any particularly noteworthy outside point of view, nor does she manage to instill on viewers unfamiliar with the life or work of the androgyne musician the sense that The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye is anything more than a home movie.
Directed, photographed (in colour) and edited by Marie Losier; produced by ms. Losier, Steve Holmgren; music by Bryin Dall; additional editing, Marc Vives.
A Marie Losier/Steady Orbits production. (World sales, Cat&Docs.)
Screened: IndieLisboa 2011 official selection, advance DVD screener, Lisbon, April 26th 2011.
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