Anima

In front of the camera, with a frame in between that looks like a tripod with a microphone, stands a figure smiling at us. The draped, unrecognisable body is probably that of a young woman with strikingly bright blue eyes, red hair (wig?), her fair skin almost completely covered by thick black paint – or is it a fabric cover? With the title in mind, this sight brings to mind the racist practice of blackfacing: are we supposed to imagine the white soul of a black body? Or rather the animation of sluggish Western bodies to project themselves into images of anti-colonial liberation struggles and their highly charged imagery? What's more, there are distant echoes of VALIE EXPORT's contemporary Aktionshose: Genitalpanik (Action Pants: Genital Panic). Well, the pose here is less guerrilla-like, but no less than EXPORT's work it reflexively turns projections and psychodynamic investments back onto the viewers. The laughing anima makes a classic gesture of mockery, throwing our gaze back (at itself): The body opening exposed here, emphasised in a short close-up and then a detailed shot, is the tongue stuck out at us. It is retracted again, the mouth closes, the film is over. As so often with Schmidt Jr., it ends with a black-and-white hand-with-note title "ENDE" that was added later for purposes of self-archiving. (Drehli Robnik)