Joan of Arc, 2007, Two-channel video, 5 minutes 36 seconds

Joan of Arc juxtaposes epic film images of Maria Falconetti in Carl Dreyer's 1928 film with home video images of myself. On the left, Dreyer’s infamous close-ups guide the viewer through Joan of Arc’s condemnation, the shearing of her hair, to her slow death at the stake. Her movements are channeled into the right frame through my body as I cut off my hair, shave it to a bristle and mimic Falconetti. The liturgical music of Richard Einhorn underscores a voice-over in which my own voice wavers between historical fact and confessional revelation. This wavering mimics the visuals, legitimizing Falconetti’s performance as history while positing my own actions into a fictional present that is both sincere and absurd.