The Connection

Eight junkies play jazz music together in a seedy New York apartment, while they wait for their dealer to arrive. All the while, pretentious filmmaker Jim Dunn, played by William Redfield, is trying to shoot a documentary about these drugged-up men. In this provocative feature, director Shirley Clarke treads the line between documentary and fiction to poke fun at cinema verité. Hothead Dunn exhorts the men to act naturally, saying, “I’m just trying to make an honest human document.”

The Connection (1961) was to become one of the most influential works of US independent cinema, with its restless camerawork, improvised dialogues, and understated jazz score by pianist Freddie Redd and sax legend Jackie McLean. Clarke’s raw approach captures both the bebop-infused counterculture of the early 1960s and the feelings of disillusionment.

The director’s subversive reworking of Jack Gelber’s eponymous play, featuring actors from Living Theater, was immediately banned for its use of obscene language. Despite Clarke winning the ensuing two-year legal battle, the film went unseen for many years.