Skindrums and Tattoos (2009)

• 74%
• 2009
• Gerda Cammaer

"This found-footage film is made with a censored 16mm copy of Belles of the South Seas (1944), a typical Castle travel film about the peoples of the South Pacific (I found it as is, with all the naked torsos scratched). The original "voice of god" style sound-track is recut to match the ridicule of the censored images, as well as to expose its own white colonial centricity and superiority. William Castle is introducing the film himself, and he concludes the piece with a reaction of the audience. Some special effects from the frame by frame transfer from film to video, are inserted as an extra reminder of the plasticity of media and their sometimes shady content (then and now).