Directing
Hey Bud begins with the suicide of Bud Dwyer, a government official who killed himself on television. Writes Zando: "I view the suicide as pornographic. The suicide, exposed to a wide television audience, becomes a kind of sex act that plays upon the tension created between exhibitionist and voyeur. It forces viewers to take either an empathetic position vis-a-vis the exhibitionist, or to act as voyeurs (who release their repressed desire to see the forbidden face of Death). My interest is to understand the power seated in the position of the exhibitionist, and to explore that source of power for my own personal drama. Bud Dwyer gained power by authoring his own death, but his power was fatal: the instant power is taken via exhibitionism, it is lost through death. This is the traditional power for women who must seek power via exhibitionism and exploitation — they gain power only through death-of-self."
A young woman, on the brink of sexual awakening, is shocked by the presence of her mother in bed. The imagined presence of the mother's body haunts all further sexual encounters and desire, directing and controlling the scene of passion. Writes Zando: "The 'Aha-erlebnis' (experience) is the moment when a child first recognizes his own image in a mirror. It is an experience critical to the development of intelligence and identity. It is also a moment when the 'self' is surrendered to the control of an external influence. The Mother acts as the reflecting surface from which the child develops his/her sense of self. Desire for the mother's body, and later for the lover's, mediates the child/female's subjectivity. This is accomplished by controlling love; it is the mother's power to fulfill desire that shapes a child's sense of identity."
This video is about seduction. The audience is seduced by the female narrator, while at the same time repelled by the seductress' desperate need for love and approval. The title is ironic: although the narrator "likes girls for friends better than boys," the attraction is masochistic and destructive. — Video Data Bank
The Bus Stops Here is an experimental narrative about two sisters, Judith and Anna, plunged into depression by their struggle to gain control over their lives. Narrated by Judith’s counselor, The Bus Stops Here traps these women in a narrative in which their unmediated voices are rarely heard; instead, the viewer learns about them only through the interceding power structures of narrative, family, and psychiatric establishment. Zando chooses black and white film and a drifting camera style, intercut with home movie footage, to capture the grim struggle these sisters endure as they march toward the question of “what do I need to feel satisfied?”—a question these women must ultimately answer for themselves.
