“THEY GET THE STACK
THEY GET THE WATCH
THEY GET THE CHAIN”
The Whole Nine Yards
with Joe Grey Adams, 2023 (06:59) digital film, archive material.Working with a redacted audio recording and transcript of an interview, The Whole Nine Yards explores the cool economy, loneliness and deep exposure of an anonymised New York drug dealer during his incarceration. However, his testimony, far from being police statement or court confession, is gleaned from a casting audition for another feature film (Good Time, Ben & Josh Safdie) migrated into the project. He is now deceased. The recollections peak during a haunting attempted murder, nine dudes going 'the whole nine yards'.
One of two companion pieces to the recent film, Intimate Distances (2020), it forms a new body of work that relates to the uneasy rapport between film-making and crime-making. This functions in a space where casting interview and crime testimonial become indiscernible, and can be received as either discarded testimony or audition as witness.
Screened in the Rencontres Internationale programme at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (April 2024)
PHILLIP WARNELL