Limited Engagement

Directed by Tom Braidwood

Limited Engagement (1976) sums up Braidwood's concerns for "media conditioning" and both artist's and public's responsibility for the discourse of images. This film situates the viewer as respondent in its presentation of coded (connotative) media language construction and deconstruction. Limited Engagement utilizes a "psycho-sexual" narrative that revolves around two shots which are (as in Backbone) looped and played off a manipulated sound track. Braidwood's primary concern is to generate a violent and provoking film text that contrasts "the giving of life" with "the taking of life."