BUY IT NOW
US, 2005. 62 minutes, Colour.
Chelsea Logan, Rosemarie De Witt, Christopher Mc Cann, Tiffany Yaraghi, Stacy Jordan.
Directed by Antonio Campos.
Running for only just over an hour, this is a bizarre film or, rather, an intriguing film about a bizarre topic.
It consists of two parts. In the first part, filmed as a documentary, we see a 16 year old (Chelsea Logan) deciding with a girlfriend that she will put her virginity on Ebay and auction it. This is precisely what she does, interviews potential buyers and makes her choice and follows through. Her motivations are completely amoral, no understanding of deeper meanings of sexuality and wanting the money with her consumerist philosophy.
Here is another alert to the perverse ways the internet can be used.
However, the second half is a drama, the same story told, but told as story. This time there is more complexity to the young girl, especially in her relationship to her mother, a good but unaware woman. This time the client is presented as a lustful predator and the girl is left more in puzzle about what she has done and what it means.
It would be interesting to hear a discussion amongst sixteen year olds about the internet, this kind of use of it and the moral issues. Campos took up some of these themes in his first full-length feature, Afterschool.
1.The ideas behind the film? Challenging? The impact on audiences? As fact or fiction?
2.The background of the film, the two parts, the documentary style of the first part, the narrative of the second part and repeating the story?
3.The plausibility of the plot? The sixteen-year-old girl, trying to sell her virginity on eBay, the auction, her responses? The discussions with her friends? Her mother? The highest bidder, the experience?
4.The visual style, the high-definition video? The different styles for the documentary, the editing and pace? The different styles for the narrative?
5.Audience response to the idea of the auction? The character of Chelsea Magan? Her friendship with the girls, their discussions? Her reaction towards her parents? The reality of eBay, everybody having access to it? Her getting the customers? Checking them out? Her decision? The sexual encounter? The repercussions and discussion with her friends? Audience reaction to this reality?
6.The fictionalised version of the story, the same plot, Chelsea and the different presentation of her, more background on her family life, her relationship with her mother, her mother not aware of what was going on? Her school friends? The encounter with the man and its consequences? For her as a person? The cavalier attitude in the first part, more deeply felt in the second part?
7.The portrait of the mother, friendly, not knowing what was happening with her daughter?
8.The friends, the close girlfriend, the frank and blunt talk? The lack of moral perspective? Moral anchoring and framework for life? For decisions? Virginity as an eBay commodity?
9.The presentation of the client, in himself, the fact that he would have bid on eBay? The rendezvous, his arrival, behaviour, the sexual encounter, the aftermath, his going?
10.An experimental film in terms of documentary and fiction? Exploring contemporary moral issues – and challenging people to think and react?
