Else Beckhart

A video essay that seeks to represent, study and pay homage to the North American filmmaker Cecelia Condit, covering all of her film work and video installation, portraying her through devices of semiotics, aesthetics and cinematographic language.

Invoking a biblical story of life coming from dry bones, Condit constructs an experimental narrative about an older woman’s confrontation with her own mortality after the death of her mother. The bone represents the promise of youth and hope—a promise jealously coveted by the young, but needed more by those grown old. Inverting cultural values, Condit represents feminine youth as a mannequin, and seeks humanity in the form of the older woman, who is reborn by overcoming her fear of death.