Binge 1987

Directed by Lynn Hershman-Leeson

Binge turns on confession and self-image, using obesity as the main course. Losing her familiar shape to overeating, Lynn Hershman occupies electronic space to announce her despair and her subsequent—and partially successful—diet. It is a fitting medium for such a declaration, for not only is much of self-identity generated by television, but shape, volume, and appearance are rendered abstract by the video effects Hershman employs.—Steve Seid