Begging Naked

2014 • 71 minut

O tem filmu

Elise saw energy and life in the neon lights of New York's sex district. And though it may not be everyone's pretty picture, Elise was never happier than in this cramped, converted airshaft, surrounded by vivid paintings of her life as a stripper and a prostitute. Soon she would find herself undesirable, half-mad, and plunged into homelessness.

On the boat to Manhattan, watching the island of opportunity draw ever nearer, a fifteen year old Elise already knows how to put a brave face on things. "After your father looks you in the face and says he's going to kill you, nothing can scare you". She styled herself after the 'happy hooker' and used her earnings to put herself through art school. The paintings of her first exhibition were all straight from the strip show, and the message was an affront: "I enjoy dancing, I enjoy being erotic".

But eventually, those sensual portraits of strippers who "went mad", or "joined a commune", turn into grotesque imaginings. Stick-thin, and so addicted to heroin that her "teeth are about to come out", an older Elise struggles to make a living as a stripper. The light in her eyes gets dimmer, her jokes are fewer: her art is the outpouring of frenzied conspiracy theories, which she calls "good paranoia. Because everyone is out to destroy". Then the Mayor of New York turns the sex district into a deserted fairground.

"I just need my cat, and my jacket!", Elise cries as she's forced out of the door of her former home. She never thought she'd end up shivering in doorways and living in Central Park. Yet she eats at soup kitchens, and jokes about the joy of "getting new socks on Tuesdays". Though she still believes the government is observing her, her art rolls over the fresh, green vistas of Central Park. "Every time I think it's all meaningless, something tells me: 'Elise, this is part of your art experience'".

Ocene in mnenja

fabulous film making about a remarkable ,original and brilliant subject ,i found this heartbreaking and a very saddening reflection of attitudes to women in society ,about mental illness ,and about what happens to the truly gifted and fragile among when real estate profit becomes more important than people ..encapsulated in the film is a documentation of the effect of the gentrification (blandifification )of NYC ..by rights Elise's work should have major art world exposure .The film is beautifully made,great editing, cinematography ,story telling, and sensitively executed .I was extremely moved by it .

This is touching documentary. Sad to think people have more access to a film like 'Boyhood' a film which follows a fictional character over the space of seven years on such a superficial level, using the aesthetics of time passing as a gimmic to make a mediocre drama have some appeal. Here in "Begging Naked' we have a real life character with some of the best insights on humanity and art at our disposal, followed over nine years, it's true and it should be seen.

Documentary about a teenage runaway who initially finds refuge, then rejection and ultimately salvation in New York City. Elise is a fearless individual struggling with poverty homelessness and mania who is redeemed by her art. Beautifully crafted, mezmerizing. Stays with you long after the film is over.