Film description

In the late ‘70s, during the period of New York’s Super 8 no wave, Jack Smith announced plans for his own Super 8 feature, Sindbad in the Rented World, in which he would appear as the former dancing boy and aspiring radio personality, Sindbad Glick. This may or may not be the ‘Arabian Nights architecture film’ to which the artist refers in his 1978 interview with Sylvère Lotringer or the half hour assemblage that, labeled Sindbad of Bagdad, was shot that winter in Coney Island. A caravan of well-swaddled creatures, including a mother and baby, take up residence on the beach. Some of their costumes sport paper-mache phalluses. The mise-en-scène also includes miniature animals, empty bottles of Bali Hai wine, and an advertisement for Preparation H. These staged scenes are interspersed with vérité footage of summer crowds around Surf Avenue. Existing in scenario form but apparently unfilmed was the climatic roach stampede during which the Lobster in his final priestly disguise with the forehead earring of exoticism in his back pocket, is drowned in Plaster Lagoon.

J. Hoberman / Live Film! Jack Smith!