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Abscam (Framed)

Chip Lord
1981, 10:17 min, b&w and color, sound

Description

Abscam (Framed) comments on the role of video as a surveillance technique, and uncannily prefigures broadcast news' controversial use of the dramatic re-enactment as a journalistic device. Lord and videomaker Skip Blumberg visited the motel room at Kennedy Airport where, in 1979, the FBI met with then-Congressman Michael Myers, who was offered and accepted a bribe. During the subsequent publicity and trial, Myers charged the FBI with deliberate entrapment. Lord traces the tenuous line between fiction and fact, and the role that video plays in mediating reality.

With: Skip Blumberg. Camera: Skip Blumberg.

Available on

Chip Lord: Selected Works
1977-84, 25:35 min, b&w and color, sound