Tony Conrad - Beholden to Victory

Tony Conrad filmed "Beholden to Victory“ in 1980 on sound Super-8 film. Using the devices of the war film genre, Tony Conrad cast his film with friends and colleagues, such as Mike Kelley, David Antin, Sheldon Nodelman, and Tony Oursler. Rather than directing the actors, he presented them with unscripted scenarios that could only be enacted within the strictly defined roles of 'officer' or 'soldier'. Each title carried ts own set of rules and restrictions. "Beholden to Victory" extends and echoes the militaristic themes and power relationships depicted on screen between the soldiers and officers within the film to the hierarchies constructed between the actors and the camera, the camera and the director, and the audience and the film.
We present the film as a configuration of the material that Tony Conrad developed in 2007. The film material is being digitally projected as a random-edited computer video, which runs differently in every presentation.