Ericka Beckman

Ericka Beckman began making super-8 films in New York’s late-1970s No Wave scene, alongside artists of the “Pictures Generation.” This DVD contains her Super-8 Piaget trilogy: We Imitate; We Break Up (1978); The Broken Rule (1979); and Out of Hand (1980): three giddy, game-playing choreographies whose hypnotic rhythms draw inspiration from child psychology and early cartoons, and star such artist-friends as Mike Kelley, Matt Mullican and James Casebere. Jim Hoberman described We Imitate; We Break Up as “a high school gym class taught by Georges Méliès in a space designed by Giorgio de Chirico” and Out of Hand “like an Allstate Insurance commercial as it might appear to an autistic child.” In these now classic films, Beckman’s orchestrated robotic movements, bright costumes, deadpan jump-rope mantras and looping or frenetic soundtracks offer postpunk lessons in behavioral patterns.