A meticulously prepared and made documentary, that includes many shocking pictures about the work of the American performance artist Ron Athey, whose work is comparable with that of Bob Flanagan (see The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan). With a theatre company made up of freaks, Athey gives performances that have the character of religious rites. During his shows, he bores through his body until it bleeds, sticks huge numbers of syringes in his arms and has objects pushed into all his orifices. A scandalous part of the performance Four Scenes in a Harsh Life by the HIV infected Athey is the scene in which he uses a big black man (Darryl Carlton) as a living printing press. Using a knife, he cuts shapes in the back of Carlton that he then prints on pieces of paper, using the blood as ink. He then hangs these pieces of paper on a line above the audience to dry. It resulted in a complaint from someone who was afraid of getting AIDS from the blood dripping from the paper. The riot led to questions in Congress, and that in turn led to a considerably cut in the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts. Since that riot, Athey has never performed in public again in the USA. This was one of the motives for Saalfield to make the film: so that the American people could continue to witness Athey’s controversial performances. (GjZ)
