BENEATH THE SKIN (1981) by Cecelia Condit explores the grim side of female subjectivity as it merges a true crime story about an unsolved murder with personal nightmare imagery. The film has a hallucinatory quality to it, and is as beautiful as it is unsettling. I'm fascinated by all of the contrasting elements of this film, such as the relationship between light and dark, impersonal and personal, and dream vs. reality. This 11 minute film is the first notable work by Condit, who's gone on to make many more compelling videos since.
YouTube description:
Relating a tale told by a girl on a swing, Beneath the Skin explores the contrast between the impersonal horror of a news story heard on television and the involvement of the storyteller in a nightmare, which gradually becomes more familiar and commonplace as the tale unfolds. The straightforward approach of the teller is humorously or frighteningly contrasted by a bombardment of visual images which mock or intensify the macabre flavor of the work.
