“Scaling narrates the trials and betrayals of growing older.” Esma Moukhtar, Montevideo Catalogue

This movie went through a lot of versions over the years, and has finally wound up as chapter 8 in a 10-chapter feature entitled Imitations of Life. It simply shows a man painting a white wall black for five minutes (originally released in a fit of youthful enthusiasm as a 16mm silent short called Eulogy for Tom Sawyer), while another unpaints the black wall back into white. Even as the first figure attempts to cover over, or redact the wall, the other figure is steadily uncovering it. So often we work at cross purposes, a self divided, multiplied, moving in different directions.

On the soundtrack, a young boy offers a series of excuses, always beginning with the word ‘because.’ They are explanations of failure, or not trying hard enough, going far enough. “Because we don’t talk about that kind of thing, not where I come from. Because we mistook our prejudices for love.” The movie is a reaction shot to an event never seen, though its context makes clear that this offscreen catastrophe has been occasioned by a failure of pictures, the public imaginary worn thin by the produce of globalized spectaculars owned by too few and delivered too well, in too many places, too often.

An interrogation of limits, of possible futures, a kind of materialist science fiction.

Originally shot in 1981 on super 8, then blown up twice to 16mm, forwards and back. Two painters: one paints, one unpaints. A young voice offers excuses. Why don't things change?

Chapter 8 of the 10-part compilation-feature Imitations of Life (2002). Sound re-edit/remix 2016.