Stephen Winter’s film will be screened at the Spectacle Theater on May 1 and May 2, 2026.
This updated version of Winter’s 2015 film unearths the ghosts of Jason and Shirley, restaging the volatile 12-hour shoot of the 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason. Filmed at the Chelsea Hotel, the documentary blurred the line between subject and storyteller.
Jason Holliday (Jack Waters), a sharp-witted Black gay man, whose identity splits between personas–performer, hustler, muse, provocateur–is once again in the room with Shirley Clarke (queer pioneer Sarah Schulman), the Oscar-winning filmmaker who insisted on framing his life.
Jason and Shirley gnaw each other apart, splitting gender, sexuality, race and class down the middle, until what remains is the truest and rawest version of each, as they also consume copious amounts of drugs: upper, downers, in-betweeners, psychedelics, psychotropics, narcotics, depressants, scissoring at each other until one might confuse the pair for sisters in this reimagining of what took place during the historic production of Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason.
Also showing will be the 9-minute short film, Birth of the Hive Queen, directed by Tempest Creation. The screenings include a Q&A with directors Stephen Winter, Tempest Creation and special guests.
Friday, May 1, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Purchase tickets at www.spectacletheater.com/jason-shirley-revisited-birth-of-the-hive-queen/. Spectacle is located at 124 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY, between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street.
