Joan Does Dynasty (1986)

Interesting facts

Joan Does Dynasty is a 1986 short film written, produced, and performed by video artist Joan Braderman. The video was directed by Braderman with her then-partner Manuel DeLanda. It is not only a send-up of prime time soap-operas of the period, but also a skewering of the Reaganesque excesses of 80's popular culture in the U.S., examining the ways in which such iconic shows and other pop cultural objects functioned both as objects of desire and disgust.

Production

Braderman created the video in 1986 with the open media collective Paper Tiger Television. In a research paper about Jewish second-wave feminism, Melissa Raphael, professor of Jewish theology at the University of Gloucestershire, quotes Braderman for reflecting on the female characters of Dynasty:

These campy [TV] creatures have been interceding in my key personal relations for several years now. I assigned myself to watch the show, to see how the thing works. Why do a hundred million people in 78 countries welcome this department store of dressed-to-kill aliens in their homes every week?

Braderman's monologue was shot in front of a series of bluescreens, using mattes such as Mexican wrestling masks and dancing teardrops. These images from the shows were mixed with Braderman's performance of her original script, creating what Bob Reilly of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art calls "the post-scratch chroma-key switcher effects [Braderman] made famous."

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