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B-ROLL WITH ANDRE a film by JAMES N. KIENITZ WILKINS. 2015, USA, 19 min. A meta-cinematic, multi-format reflection on prison breakouts, filmmaking and identity. A hooded speaker, face in shadow and voice disguised by a witness-protection encoder, addresses a camera. His hypnotic monologue covers a prison buddy’s mysterious escape, a pitch for a heist thriller called eBoyz, and an amazing array of digressions, from Vin Diesel to Panera Bread. The resulting conspiracy is also an engrossing meta-cinematic reflection on identity, image-making and virtuality – directed with wit and skill by prolific, Whitney Biennial-selected filmmaker and video artist James N. Kienitz Wilkins (The Plagiarists, Indefinite Pitch). The shot of the narrator which takes up much of the running time is actually HD stock footage – licensed from an online library in a move typical of Wilkins, who often appropriates images, sounds and stories from external sources like court records and the public domain. It is intercut with SD “B-roll” shot on a GoPro camera, attributed to the Andre character but filmed by Wilkins himself. These two aesthetically and conceptually distinct mediums are united, then turned on their heads, by another Wilkins’ trademark: the allusive, often comic monologue, dense with puns, language games and brand names like eBay and Black Magic.
