A R C H I V E1 9 9 0  
.9
  Jem Cohen
Just hold still
  USA 1989
Videotape, 23:15, colour & black-and-white, mono
Slowed images of a city, mostly taken from a window, from a roof and from a moving car. Various subjects are dealt with, apparently randomly and divided into sections like 'The heart is attached', 'Love Teller', 'Light Years' and 'Glue Man'. Subjects from daily life: chance, desires to be somewhere else (but now I know, I shall never change again), the measurable possibilities of the human body for passion, telephone conversations with answering machines, deserted streets, the garage doors which always have to be kept clear but which are never opened, the shadows which provide free film shows on the street. Children play and a lonely glue man talks to himself and the world. A man's own head is his own city; his home is his everything, his everywhere…

Sonja van der Burg

Text: Guy Picciotto, Jem Cohen, Sound editing: Ian Mackaye, Jem Cohen, Voice: Mark Mulcahy