Spalding Gray

Spalding Gray

Born: June 5, 1941
Died: January 11, 2004
in Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as for his film adaptations of these works, beginning in 1987. He wrote and starred in several, working with different directors.

Theater critics John Willis and Ben Hodges called Gray's monologues "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania."  Gray achieved renown for his monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which he adapted as a 1987 film in which he starred; it was directed by Jonathan Demme. Other of his monologues that he adapted for film were Monster in a Box (1991), directed by Nick Broomfield, and Gray's Anatomy (1996), directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Gray died by suicide at the age of 62 after jumping into New York Harbor on January 11, 2004. He had been struggling with depression and severe injuries following a car accident. Soderbergh made a documentary film about Gray's life, And Everything Is Going Fine (2010). An unfinished monologue and a selection from his journals were published in 2005 and 2011, respectively.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Spalding Gray, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Spalding Gray...

Rumstick Road
Title: Rumstick Road
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: May 1, 2014
Type: Movie
A video reconstruction of the 1977 Wooster Group production Rumstick Road, an experimental theater performance created by Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte after the suicide of Gray's mother. Archival recordings are combined with photographs, slides, and other materials to recreate the original production.
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And Everything Is Going Fine
Title: And Everything Is Going Fine
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: June 4, 2010
Type: Movie
From the first time he performed Swimming to Cambodia - the one-man account of his experience of making the 1984 film The Killing Fields - Spalding Gray made the art of the monologue his own. Drawing unstintingly on the most intimate aspects of his own life, his shows were vibrant, hilarious and moving. His death came tragically early, in 2004; this compilation of interview and performance footage nails his idiosyncratic and irreplaceable brilliance.
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Revolution #9
Title: Revolution #9
Character: Scooter McCrae
Released: November 15, 2002
Type: Movie
A handsome and successful young man with a lovely fiancée, James Jackson seems to have everything going for him, but his life begins to unravel when he develops an acute sense of paranoia. At first, he notices little things at his office that he takes as signs that people are out to get him, but soon things escalate, with Jackson convinced that a perfume ad on television holds sinister messages aimed at him. Is Jackson losing his mind, or are the threats real?
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Confessions of a Sociopath
Title: Confessions of a Sociopath
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2002
Type: Movie
Confessions of a Sociopath is an autobiographical film on digital video and Super 8 film, conceived as a real-life version of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. In this film, Joe Gibbons plays a fictionalized version of himself as he discovers a roomful of Super 8 footage from his own life, detailing events he can no longer recall. This footage shows his earlier film experiments, his descent into destructive behavior, and his “bottoming out” on drugs and alcohol. At a certain point, the films are replaced by random photos, police records, and psychiatric hospital records.
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Kate & Leopold
Title: Kate & Leopold
Character: Dr. Geisler
Released: December 25, 2001
Type: Movie
When her scientist ex-boyfriend discovers a portal to travel through time -- and brings back a 19th-century nobleman named Leopold to prove it -- a skeptical Kate reluctantly takes responsibility for showing Leopold the 21st century. The more time Kate spends with Leopold, the harder she falls for him. But if he doesn't return to his own time, his absence will forever alter history.
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How High
Title: How High
Character: Prof. Jackson
Released: December 21, 2001
Type: Movie
Multi-platinum rap superstars Redman and Method Man star as Jamal and Silas, two regular guys who smoke something magical, ace their college entrance exams and wind up at Harvard. Ivy League ways are strange but Silas and Jamal take it in a stride -- until their supply of supernatural smoke runs dry. That's when they have to start living by their wits and rely on their natural resources to make the grade.
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Julie Johnson
Title: Julie Johnson
Character: Mr. Tom Miranda
Released: January 26, 2001
Type: Movie
A New Jersey housewife is dissatisfied with her everyday life because she is smarter than she or anyone else knows. While taking a computer class, Julie discovers her abilities and finds the courage to make dramatic life changes. This is a story of realizing one's potential and being willing to turn one's life upside down to take a chance on finding happiness. Claire, Julie's best friend, goes along with Julie's secret quest and eventually moves in with her. Both women are on a search to realize their dreams and come to terms with their love for each other.
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Title: The Mike O'Malley Show
Released: September 21, 1999
Type: TV
The Mike O'Malley Show is an American sitcom on NBC that aired only two episodes. The series star, Mike O'Malley, created and executive produced the series with Les Firestein.
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Yesterday's Tomorrows
Title: Yesterday's Tomorrows
Character: Self
Released: August 9, 1999
Type: Movie
Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the third of the six films, "Yesterday's Tomorrows," filmmaker Barry Levinson delves into what we, as Americans, thought the future would be as we traveled through the 20th century. Houses and cars of the future, the promise of technology, and the other hopes and dreams of the early part of the century gave way to the fears and anxieties brought about by the atomic age and the Hollywood disaster films that followed. Soon we wondered if we could control technology, or if it would control us. This film is by turns light-hearted and thoughtful, and rare historical and archival film, produced by government and industry, alternates with on-screen interviews with people as diverse as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, cartoonist Matt Groening, futurist Alvin Toffler, comedienne Phyllis Diller, and actor Martin Mull.
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Coming Soon
Title: Coming Soon
Character: Mr. Jennings
Released: June 8, 1999
Type: Movie
Privileged teenage friends Jenny, Nell and Stream spend their senior year on a quest to rid Stream of her virginity. However, Stream wants more than just her first sexual experience. She wants to have an orgasm -- but achieving this proves problematic, as the boys she meets are hardly sensitive enough to provide her the release she seeks. When it becomes clear that Nell and Jenny have never experienced an orgasm either, all three set out to get one.
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Bliss
Title: Bliss
Character: Alfred
Released: April 14, 1997
Type: Movie
A newly married happy couple visits a sex therapist to determine why the wife can't achieve an orgasm with her husband. This causes a horrific suppressed memory to emerge and she becomes more and more distant.
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Drunks
Title: Drunks
Character: Louis
Released: March 14, 1997
Type: Movie
At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does - and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, searching for some solace in his old stomping grounds, bars and parks where he bought drugs, the meeting goes on, and we hear the stories of survivors and addicts - some, like Louis, who claim to have wandered in looking for choir practice, who don't call themselves alcoholic, and others, like Joseph, whose drinking almost caused the death of his child - as they talk about their lives at the meeting
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Gray's Anatomy
Title: Gray's Anatomy
Character: Self
Released: September 11, 1996
Type: Movie
The film documents, in an often dramatic and humorous fashion, Gray's investigations into alternative medicine for an eye condition (Macular pucker) he had developed.
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Diabolique
Title: Diabolique
Character: Simon Veatch
Released: March 22, 1996
Type: Movie
The wife and mistress of a cruel school master collaborate in a carefully planned and executed scheme to murder him. The plan goes well until the body, which has been strategically dumped, disappears. The psychological strain starts to weigh on the two women when a retired police investigator begins looking into the man's disappearance on a whim.
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Glory Daze
Title: Glory Daze
Character: Jack's Dad
Released: October 1, 1995
Type: Movie
Jack, a soon-to-be graduate, finds he's having a difficult time letting go of the college life -- and decides maybe he doesn't have to. Also questioning whether there's life after college are Jack's roommates: Rob, who fears domestication; comic-strip artist Mickey, who's shy around girls; intellectual party animal Slosh; and perpetual student Dennis.
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Beyond Rangoon
Title: Beyond Rangoon
Character: Jeremy Watt
Released: May 24, 1995
Type: Movie
Dr. Laura Bowman is a young widow who's unwittingly drawn into political turmoil while vacationing in Burma in the late 1980s. Bowman initially left San Francisco with her sister in an attempt to escape painful memories of her husband and son's violent deaths. But her fight to escape to Thailand could prove just as harrowing.
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Bad Company
Title: Bad Company
Character: Walter Curl
Released: January 20, 1995
Type: Movie
CIA operative Nelson Crowe is tasked with a deadly assignment: infiltrate a highly secret industrial espionage firm. Once inside, he teams with Margaret Wells, a master spy and seductive manipulator, in a plot to overthrow the organization's sinister president, which leads them into a darkly mysterious web of intrigue -- and shocking murder!
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The Paper
Title: The Paper
Character: Paul Bladden
Released: March 18, 1994
Type: Movie
Henry Hackett is the workaholic editor of a New York City tabloid. He loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. Also, publisher Bernie White faces financial straits, and has hatchet-man Alicia Clark—Henry's nemesis—impose unpopular cutbacks.
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Zelda
Title: Zelda
Character: Sayre
Released: November 6, 1993
Type: Movie
Famous 1920s modernist writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his eccentric Flapper socialite wife Zelda Sayre's relationship began quite passionately, but he slowly fell into alcoholism and she was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
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Twenty Bucks
Title: Twenty Bucks
Character: Priest
Released: October 21, 1993
Type: Movie
A story about the life of a twenty dollar bill as it weaves in and out of the various lives of several people.
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King of the Hill
Title: King of the Hill
Character: Mr. Mungo
Released: August 20, 1993
Type: Movie
Based on the Depression-era bildungsroman memoir of writer A. E. Hotchner, the film follows the story of a boy struggling to survive on his own in a hotel in St. Louis after his mother is committed to a sanatorium with tuberculosis. His father, a German immigrant and traveling salesman working for the Hamilton Watch Company, is off on long trips from which the boy cannot be certain he will return.
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The Pickle
Title: The Pickle
Character: Doctor
Released: April 30, 1993
Type: Movie
Harry Stone always dreamed of making "The Great American Movie." Instead he made The Pickle - a teenage sci-fi flick about a flying cucumber. Harry just wanted to get out of debt; now everyone he's ever known, loved and neglected is standing in line for tickets.
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Monster in a Box
Title: Monster in a Box
Character: Self
Released: May 15, 1992
Type: Movie
Monologuist Spalding Gray talks about the great difficulties he experienced while attempting to write his first novel, a nearly 2,000-page autobiographical tome concerning the death of his mother. Among his many asides, Gray discusses his problems in dealing with the Hollywood film industry, recounts the trips he took around the world in order to avoid dealing with his writer's block and describes his ambivalence about acting as stage manager for a Broadway production of "Our Town."
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Straight Talk
Title: Straight Talk
Character: Dr. Erdman
Released: April 3, 1992
Type: Movie
Honest and straightforward small-town Shirlee Kenyon chucks her boyfriend and heads for Chicago. Accidentally having to host a radio problem phone-in show, it is clear she is a natural and is hired on the spot. But the station insists she call herself Doctor, and as her popularity grows a local reporter starts digging for the truth. Problem is, the more he is around her the more he fancies her.
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To Save a Child
Title: To Save a Child
Released: September 8, 1991
Type: Movie
A doctor and his pregnant young wife move into a small New Mexico town. At first the locals are friendly and pleased to see them, but soon the wife begins to suspect that their new neighbors' motives are more than just hospitality.
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The Image
Title: The Image
Character: Frank Goodrich
Released: January 27, 1990
Type: Movie
When career-focused journalist's investigation indirectly causes a suicide, he questions his own methods and life in general.
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Heavy Petting
Title: Heavy Petting
Character: Self
Released: September 22, 1989
Type: Movie
Celebrities and creatives -- including musician David Byrne, performance artist Spalding Gray, comedian Sandra Bernhard, radical activist Abbie Hoffman, and poet Allen Ginsberg-- recall their earliest sexual experiences.
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Our Town
Title: Our Town
Character: Stage Manager
Released: April 1, 1989
Type: Movie
This classic American play, performed on an almost-bare stage, is about the mundane but rather pleasant lives of the Gibbs family, the Webb family, and their neighbors in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, early in the 20th century.
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Beaches
Title: Beaches
Character: Dr. Richard Milstein
Released: December 21, 1988
Type: Movie
A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.
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Clara's Heart
Title: Clara's Heart
Character: Peter Epstein
Released: October 7, 1988
Type: Movie
David is a teenager whose parents are in a deteriorating marriage after their infant daughter dies. Clara is a chambermaid at a Jamaican resort who's hired to be a housekeeper. She and David develop a close bond, opening his eyes and heart to new experiences, and eventually leading to a disturbing secret in Clara's past.
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Stars & Bars
Title: Stars & Bars
Character: Reverend T.J. Cardew
Released: March 18, 1988
Type: Movie
A British art expert leaves New York to buy a long-lost Renoir from a Georgia eccentric.
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Spalding Gray: Terrors of Pleasure
Title: Spalding Gray: Terrors of Pleasure
Character: Self
Released: November 28, 1987
Type: Movie
Monologue by Spalding Gray about his misadventures in purchasing a home.
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Swimming to Cambodia
Title: Swimming to Cambodia
Character: Self
Released: March 13, 1987
Type: Movie
Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'The Killing Fields'. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set.
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True Stories
Title: True Stories
Character: Earl Culver
Released: October 10, 1986
Type: Movie
A small but growing Texas town, filled with strange and musical characters, celebrates its sesquicentennial and converge on a local parade and talent show.
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What You Mean We?
Title: What You Mean We?
Character: Talk show host
Released: September 26, 1986
Type: Movie
WHAT YOU MEAN WE is a surreal short film by experimental artist Laurie Anderson.
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Seven Minutes in Heaven
Title: Seven Minutes in Heaven
Character: Dr. Rodney
Released: May 9, 1986
Type: Movie
Natalie allows her classmate Jeff, who ran away from home after a fight with his stepfather, to stay at her place while her father is away on a business trip. Natalie soon starts dating Jeff's friend James Casey, who isn't as faithful as she thinks, while her best friend Polly falls in love with baseball player Zoo Knudsen.
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Title: Spenser: For Hire
Released: September 20, 1985
Type: TV
Mystery and suspense series based on Robert Parker's "Spenser" novels. Spenser, a private investigator living in Boston, gets involved in a new murder mystery each episode.
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Almost You
Title: Almost You
Character: Travel Agent
Released: March 29, 1985
Type: Movie
Alex and Erica Boyer are a young couple in crisis. Alex, despite his loving wife, beautiful home and high-paying job, feels trapped. When Erica has an accident that leaves her temporarily confined to a wheelchair and requiring the services of a private nurse, the beautiful Lisa enters the Boyers' lives. A complicated situation develops as Alex sees Lisa as the cure for his own problems as well as his wife's.
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Variety
Title: Variety
Character: Voice on answering machine (voice)
Released: February 27, 1985
Type: Movie
A repressed young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patron of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tickets.
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Variety
Title: Variety
Character: Obscene Phone Caller (voice)
Released: February 27, 1985
Type: Movie
A repressed young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patron of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tickets.
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Hard Choices
Title: Hard Choices
Character: Terry Norfolk
Released: January 24, 1985
Type: Movie
A teenaged boy goes for a ride with his brother and the brother's friends, who proceed to rob a store and murder the clerk. They are caught and, despite the young boy's protestations, he is convicted of murder and sent to prison. A female social worker assigned to the boy's case not only believes him, but begins to fall in love with him, and determines to either help him prove his innocence or escape.
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Spalding Gray: A Life in Progress
Title: Spalding Gray: A Life in Progress
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1985
Type: Movie
Performance clips and biographical anecdotes from the life of Spalding Gray.
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The Killing Fields
Title: The Killing Fields
Character: U.S. Consul
Released: November 23, 1984
Type: Movie
New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.
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Spalding Gray's Map of L.A.
Title: Spalding Gray's Map of L.A.
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1984
Type: Movie
Spalding Gray comes to LA to perform a set of monologues.
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Double Lunar Dogs
Title: Double Lunar Dogs
Released: January 1, 1984
Type: Movie
Based on Robert Heinlein’s 1941 story “Universe,” Double Lunar Dogs presents a vision of post-apocalyptic survival aboard a “spacecraft,” travelling aimlessly through the universe, whose passengers have forgotten the purpose of their mission. As a metaphor for the nature and purpose of memory, the two main characters (portrayed by Jonas and Spalding Gray) play games with images of their past; but their efforts to restore their collective memories are futile, and they are reprimanded by the “Authority” for their attempts to recapture their past on a now-destroyed planet Earth.
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Sex and Death to the Age 14
Title: Sex and Death to the Age 14
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1982
Type: Movie
Monologue created and performed by Spalding Gray, who takes us through his childhood recollections of growing up in a Christian Science household in Barrington, Rhode Island, in the 1950s.
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A Personal History of the American Theater
Title: A Personal History of the American Theater
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1982
Type: Movie
An autobiographical monologue in which Spalding Gray randomly draws cards for titles of the plays in which he performed in the 1960s. He proceeds to tell stories that came out of the experiences with each play.
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Anybody's Woman
Title: Anybody's Woman
Released: January 1, 1981
Type: Movie
The goings-on around a porn theater in New York’s East Village, interspersed with actors recounting experiences with extreme sexualities and a description of a scene from the pre-code Dorothy Arzner film of the same name.
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Maraschino Cherry
Title: Maraschino Cherry
Character: Penny's Client with Beard (uncredited)
Released: October 20, 1978
Type: Movie
Maraschino Cherry, the owner of a high-class escort service in New York City, teaches her younger sister Penny Cherry about the business The two sisters reflect on a series of erotic episodes related to the service and its clients., replete with humorous puns and innuendos.
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The Farmer's Daughters
Title: The Farmer's Daughters
Character: George
Released: June 11, 1976
Type: Movie
After the farmer's daughters attack the farm hand Fred, three escaped convicts arrive and have their way with members of the family. Fred surprises the convicts, only to replace them in the family's victimization.
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Title: Saturday Night Live
Character: Narrator of 'Brides' (voice) (uncredited)
Released: October 11, 1975
Type: TV
A late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, and features performances by a musical guest.
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Title: Great Performances
Character: Stage Manager
Released: January 28, 1971
Type: TV
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
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Love-In '72
Title: Love-In '72
Character: Radical at Party
Released: March 21, 1970
Type: Movie
A man must decide whether to flee the U.S. draft and go to Canada or stay or go fight for his country in Vietnam.
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Thirty Second Spots: TV Commercials for Artists (1982-83)
Title: Thirty Second Spots: TV Commercials for Artists (1982-83)
Character: Spalding Gray
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: Movie
Inverting the form, style and time frame of commercial television advertising, Logue has produced a unique series of dynamic video portraits of avant-garde artists, writers, musicians and performers. In 30 Second Spots: New York, which Logue terms "commercials for artists," each of the succinct vignettes conveys the artistic essence of her subject with clarity, wit, and an elegant economy of means. John Cage, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Spalding Gray and Steve Reich are among the artists who are captured here with concise drama. Each subject performs in close-up before a stationary camera.