In a quiet and chilly auditorium of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this week, a man named Jason is having his picture taken.
I am doing what I want to do and it's a nice feeling that somebody is taking a picture of it. This is a picture I can save forever," Jason says in the 1967 film "Portrait of Jason," of which he was the inspiration, the subject and the star. "For once in my life I was together, and this is the result of it."
Recently restored after decades of being "lost," "Portrait of Jason" is an extended interview, or a cross-examination, of Jason Holliday: a black, gay man with quite the story to tell. But what kind of story is this? On its website, the MFA - co-presenting "Portrait" with the Boston LGBT Film Festival - invites visitors to come and see one of a few special screenings of the film, a piece which explores "the border between cinema verit? and fiction."
The sound of ice clinking in a glass is the first sound viewers hear in Shirley Clarke's groundbreaking movie. Slowly, an image fades in, and dark, fuzzy shapes become a face - and then a man.
"My name is Jason Holliday
