Pretend, 2003

Julie Talen’s feature-length video, Pretend, is an astonishingly complex experimental visual narrative structure that nevertheless, sustains a cohesive, inner storytelling logic. Composed of a series of dynamically arranged, multi-channel screens, each presenting alternate points of view, imagined scenarios, experiments in color and textual composition, and fragmentation of chronology, the video uses a seemingly simple tale – two sisters who fabricate a plan to feign the younger sister’s kidnapping in order to emotionally manipulate their parents into staying together – to create a compelling, exquisite, and artistically mature work on perspective, reality, guilt, and memory.

© Acquarello 2003. All rights reserved.