Jason & Shirley Revisited

What Interior. Leather Bar. did for Cruising, Jason and Shirley did for Oscar-winner Shirley Clarke’s 1967 film Portrait of Jason — a controversial, confessional-style documentary about nightclub performer Jason Holliday, which was infamously shot in one grueling 12-hour session at the Chelsea Hotel. Critics have long been divided over the film: Did Shirley bait Jason into unraveling on camera or was the result Jason’s plan all along? In 2015, director Stephen Winter (Chocolate Babies, Frameline21) confronted this question head on.