Courtney Egan, Prototype Chaos Hag
How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
I think I was late 20s or even 30 when I found out about Joanie 4 Jackie and I don’t remember how I found out about it. Was there an article in Bitch magazine, or something like that?
What interested you about the project?
I was hosting Open Screenings in New Orleans in the late 1990s and early ’00s and was very much into short film collections and screenings, and a cinema that was local, unique and homemade. I liked Miranda July’s work and thought the chainletter was a great idea.
At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
I considered myself an artist working with moving images. I borrowed, lifted or appropriated already-existing images of women in order to comment on the images of women in media that I grew up with.
Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with your movie?
This piece later became a longer 8 min piece called “The Chaos Hags” and each hag had a theme. I spent a lot of time watching vhs tapes and copying sections from them that I wanted to cut and paste together, basically a collage technique that I was thrilled about since discovering digital media tools like After Effects. A lot of people then seemed overly concerned that I was violating copyrights. pshaw.
What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
awesome then and awesome now.
What institutions, groups, people, publications and movements were inspiring you at the time of your participation in J4J?
I think at that time I was into Hannah Hoch, Martha Colburn, Pat Olesko, Tony Oursler, Cindy Sherman, Gunvor Nelson…I was discovering classic Hollywood cinema, amazed by Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland…Billy Wilder. I was big into masking during the collaborative relational community art event that is Mardi Gras. I was able to work with Helen Hill during that period and loved her work and her spirit.
What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I make media installations and teach filmmaking – post production and fx – to high school students.