Portrait of Jason

Portrait of jason is a two-hour 'monologue' of Jason Holliday, a forty-year-old black homosexual. Talking about his life, he constantly hesitates between self-pity and an unlimited optimism. He talks about his employers, lovers, parents, and friends. And about his ambition to be a star. He is a cabaret artist, doing, among other things, an impersonation of Mae West.
Shirley Clarke, who gave up her dancing career to become a filmmaker in 1953, shot portrait of jason on a single night on the roof of the famous Chelsea Hotel in New York. We can hear her voice in the background, soft and indistinct, giving directions to the cameraman and sound man and asking Jason questions. The film is focused on this single man: the camera records every expression, movement, and reaction of what seems to be a direct confrontation between the director and her subject.
Despite his boldness, Jason ends up as a broken man at the end of the film, after all the layers have been peeled off. Portrait of jason is a splendid example of documentary filming and psychology. Its strength lies particularly in Jason's emotional versatility and profoundness. His story about a rich widow in Hollywood reveals so much more about the tragedy of her existence than all the films about rich widows in America could ever do. Jason's unusual stories full of self-mockery, the irony he gives his stories with a mere expression of his face, are an invitation to the audience to reconsider their own views on society once more.