The Broken Rule USA 1978, Super 8 transferred to 16 mm, 23min
Out of Hand USA 1980, Super 8 transferred to 16 mm, 30 min
These two other films of the ‘Piaget trilogy’ address the processes of learning and of recollection, and how both are informed by repetitive activity. According to Beckman, ‘The Broken Rule is my reaction to the American education system, where learning blocks must be acquired by the group before any individual can progress to the next level. My film pictures learning blocks as relay races conducted by male players, where the girls are scores, and the goal is to enter the working world by the end of the game. Mike Kelley, the lead player in my film, makes a ritual out of his mistakes to escape their consequences. In this film, one person’s work is another person’s play, and play creates competition, a component of work.’ In Out of Hand, starring Paul McMahon and featuring Matt Mullican and James Welling, a small boy continually returns to a house that is being evacuated to look for something that he has left behind. Here the house’s architecture begins to resemble the corridors of the protagonist’s memory. These Super 8 films will be presented in newly restored 16 mm blow-up prints.
Programme duration 55 min
