The Connection

Shirley Clarke's 1962 American film is adapted from Jack Gelber's play as staged by the Living Theatre. Eight addicts wait for their dealer in a New York apartment; a two-man documentary crew films them, and as the wait lengthens both the people in the room and the crew come apart. The idea is to question documentary honesty itself: the cameraman starts as an observer and ends as part of the event. This is a very early example of a structure that would become familiar fifty years later. New York State refused the film a licence on the grounds of obscenity; the courts eventually found it vulgar but not obscene and overturned the decision. The telling is deliberately static. Who it's for: viewers interested in the early period of American independent cinema and formal experiment. Who it's not for: anyone wanting incident, or avoiding scenes of drug use.