Hey Madonna (1999)

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Part 4 of 7-part bio-feature Public Lighting (2014). Recut in 2016.

The third in a series of correspondences with Madonna. Cast in the form of a letter, including synchronous moments (a doctor's visit, reminiscences about death), it narrates a tale of former lovers, one of whom has become positive. A fairytale of mourning.

“Hoolboom has long taken found footage and made it his own, and he amusingly does this with Hey Madonna, which includes bits from Truth or Dare (including Warren Beatty grilling the diva on why she allows herself to be filmed at all times) and videos like Vogue. What turns the images upside down is how they're presented in the context of an apparently fictitious letter written by a gay man dying from AIDS, who claims to have slept with Madonna, and ponders sadly how the superstar is starting to show her age.” Robert Koehler, Variety

“Hey Madonna continues the examination of celebrity life in the form of a fan letter wherein the writer chronicles his experience with being HIV+.” Diane Burgess, Vancouver International Festival

“Hey Madonna is part of the series, Public Lighting, which comprises seven videos by Hoolboom examining themes of solitude and celebrity, memory and mortality. Cast in the form of a letter to the singer, and using footage from Truth or Dare and videos such as Vogue, it narrates a tale of former lovers, one of who has become positive and the other who is starting to show her age.” Darien Taylor

“The third installment is the most iconic and immediately (and notoriously) identifiable, Hey Madonna, a collage of images, film excerpts from the pop star's documentary/exposé Truth or Dare, and the music video for Vogue - a life lived in seeming perpetuity (and perhaps intentionally) before the camera. But beyond the superficiality and narcissism in the eternal quest of the limelight, Hoolboom (superim)poses an existential question, "Is being photographed the only way to cheat death?" as the estranged interactions in the life of an HIV positive patient contacting former lovers, told through overlaid text, confront the audience (and consequently, expose the artifice) with more fundamental issues of mortality and legacy, as well the anonymous and humiliating, yet self-enlightening spectacle of terminal illness and the process of death.” Posted by Acquarello, Nov. 28, 2005. Check him out: http://filmref.com/siteinfo.html

Category: Pop

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