Critical Mass by Kerry Tribe
Scoring Hollis Frampton’s experimental film Critical Mass (1971), Los Angeles based artist Kerry Tribe stages a live performance of an arguing couple, retaining the quick, repetitive cuts and staccato rhythm produced through careful editing of the film. The denial, accusations, and emotional escalation ricochet in the minds of the viewer, and each cut of the film is metaphorically a the cut in the desperate surgery of a relationship in its final hour. Actors Nick Huff and Emelie O’Hara play the young couple.