Kayode Ojo

3

 

Hurt Me, 2015 takes it source imagery from Henry Bean's 2001 film, The Believer, which is loosely based on the life of Daniel Burros, the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan of New York State who committed suicide in 1965 after The New York Times revealed his Jewish background. Starring Ryan Gosling in his first leading role and photographed by Jim Denault, cinematographer for such films as Real Women Have Curves, Maria Full of Grace, Boys Don't Cry, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and R Kelly's Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22, The Believer took the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. Titled after a plea from the protagonist's fictional lover, Hurt Me highlights the film's sporadic use of the visual languages of fashion, advertising, and celebrity. Featuring low camera angles and lingering closeups à la Leni Riefenstahl, Hurt Me meditates on the the stylization of violence.