Jamie: A Portrait. 1983. Directed by Edit deAk. Digital video from Super 8 film. Silent. 6 min.
Jamie Nares has described the film as "an intimate portrayal of my, at that time, hidden self almost 40 years before she became known to the world".
Arabian Lights. 1983. USA. Directed by Edit deAk, Jamie Nares. 4K digital from Super 8mm, preserved by the Museum of Modern Art with the support of the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation. Silent. 75 min.
Arabian Lights is the second of only two Super 8mm films deAk is known to have fully edited to completion, and the only work she produced outside the New York club scene. During an extended romantic holiday in Egypt in 1977 with Jamie (then James) Nares, the two young visual artists shared a movie camera and recorded intimate, carefree moments that deAk later edited into this unusual self-portrait. Tourism becomes performance art at legendary historic sites and across the bright desert landscapes as their budding romantic relationship plays out. The film was rarely screened during the period, and MoMA’s new digital preservation is drawn from deAk’s unique original Kodachrome print and a reel of assembled outtakes, both recently acquired for the Museum’s collection.
Runtime 81 min.