Shirley Clarke's documentary "Portrait of Jason" from 1967 profiles Jason Holliday, a black queer man living in New York City. Through interviews with Holliday, the film reveals the struggles he faced with his intersecting identities of race, sexuality, and gender performance in an era before widespread civil rights and acceptance of LGBTQ people. Holliday discusses facing discrimination and mistreatment for being black and queer, but lived openly according to his own terms despite societal pressures. The documentary provides insight into Holliday's life and the hardships of his identities at that time in history.

1. Black, Queer, &
Courageous
The Connection of Race, Sex, and Performance in Shirley Clarke’s “Portrait of Jason”
By: Samantha Henry Lazard
May 4, 2018
*Intended audience: Classmates/Peers

2. For your information…
 Shirley Clarke’s “Portrait of Jason” revealed the raw feelings of a Black, Queer
man in the 1960s
 Through Jason’s stories the audience is able to identify different ways in
which Jason was mistreated
 A look into a brief history of Jason
 Areas of concern: Jason’s race, sex/sexuality, and performance in the
documentary
 A look at the world around Jason at the time of the film
 What struggles can we conclude about Jason’s identity in 1967?

3. Who is Jason Holliday?
*Born Aaron Payne
*Parents were from the South
*Hard upbringing/harsh relationship with
his father
*Spent his younger life being an errand boy
for prostitutes, pimps, bootleggers, school
teachers, and anyone who’d give him a buck
*He stated “Jason Holliday was created in San
Francisco, and San Francisco is a place to be
created.”
*Jason Holliday worked as a “houseboy” for
wealthy white people

4. Being Black in
the 1960s
A controversial time in America
(Civil Rights Movement 1954-
1968)
Most black people worked hard
labored jobs as they were seen as
inferior
Even with the passing of the Civil
Rights Act, progress for equality
was slow and race relations were
high

5. Jason’s Courage
• Not only was race an issue in the
1960s, so was individuality
• Queerness was something out of
the norm, frowned upon, and
unaccepted by most people,
including family
• Jason still lived his life on his own
terms

6. *Jason considers himself a hustler or as he states “a stone whore”
*He quotes how everyone in New York has a gimmick and his was hustling
*He refuses to work a 9-5
*He jokes about sexuality and money “I’ve spent so much of my life being sexy that I
haven’t gotten anything else done. I’ve been balling from Maine to Mexico. I haven’t a dime
to show for it, but I had a swell time.”
https://youtu.be/Y87KWjtjua8

7. The following clip is an example of Jason’s Blackness and Queerness affecting
how he was treated.
*Though he jokingly reflects on the story, he makes certain comments that
directly affect who he is at that time
ex: when he speaks of “them” knowing that all black folk could fry
chicken; when he was told he’d be “just another spook”
*Yet he also talks about how it was sometimes a joke to see who would fool who
(meaning they thought he was ignorant to his surroundings but he knew what
his white employers thought of him.) Jason stated "I used to work in sunglasses,"
he explains. "That's so they couldn't see what I was thinking."
https://youtu.be/8oe45DyVNUs

8. Jason’s
Performance
Jason came off as an outgoing, lively, fun-to-
be-around person who lived life completely
comfortable with who he was.
Yet as the documentary went on and the
more Jason drank, true emotions seem to
spill out
Jason went from happy, to sad, to angry, to
regretful, and back and forth
The truth of how he felt in this time period
seem to unfold to the audience

10. Jason’s Lasting Impact
• Portrait of Jason is embraced now as a cornerstone of LGBT filmmaking, and
you can understand why: despite his tragic streak, Holliday is full of life,
proudly gay, and brutally, disarmingly frank about his sex life. "As you know,
I'm an experimental queen," he quips, rattling off the sort of kinky services he
offers his johns. – J.R. Jones, The Chicago Reader

11. The Makings of Jason Holliday
• Jason’s race, sex/sexuality, and
performance affected everything he
was and went through during his
life
• His courageous move to agree to a
documentary about his life and
lifestyle in 1967 proves how ahead
of his time he was
• Jason was well aware that he was
looked down on by others,
including people around him daily
• Clarke could have chosen anyone to
document, but she chose a Black,
Queer man who did not live his life
in the shadows of others
• Jason’s impact will live on for years
to come as a leading force of the
LGBTQ community