Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 111
Date: 1991-01-01
Duration: 00:00:37

Subject: Violence; Murder; Female impersonators
People: Atlas, Charles
Copyright Holder: Charles Atlas

Clip Description
"Son of Sam and Delilah," 1991, featuring two drag queens named Hapi and Sunny, was created by video artist Charles Atlas as a response to both sorrow over AIDS-related deaths and increasing urban violence.

Program Description
This episode of "New Television" features "Son of Sam and Delilah" by Charles Atlas.

"Son of Sam and Delilah," 1991, was created by video artist Charles Atlas. The work opens with a statement explaining that it is a response to both sorrow over AIDS-related deaths and increasing urban violence. A long-haired man with a ferocious dog wanders the streets killing people. Interspersed with these images are operatic numbers performed by a cross-dressing John Kelly. Some of the characters we are introduced to (many of whom become murder victims) are a jailed homophobe; two female performance artists, wearing slips and combat boots; two drag queens named Hapi and Sunny; and a host of garishly dressed disco-dancing party-goers. The work ends with the dancers being shot, one after the other, in front of a shiny set. Despite the gory tone, the work is humorous, as well. The deaths seem equally tragic, contrived, and comic. Some stations did not broadcast this work because it was seen as "violent and incoherent." Individual stations, including WGBH, WNET, and KQED, showed the work.

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Son12.HTML