Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist

Kirby Dick, USA 1997, 90 mins

Kirby Dick's likeable, much lauded film is an intensely private look at illness and its effects on art. It is a documentary which establishes the facts through captions and interviews and through footage of Flanagan's performance pieces, including the much discussed, full- on portrayal of the artist nailing his own penis to a block of wood and then removing the nail.

Bob Flanagan was born in 1952 and brought up in California. He was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and given six to seven years to live. At an early age he hung himself from his parents' doors and put pins in his belt.

A video letter from 1983 tells of his new relationship with Sheree Rose, a dominatrix. In "Autopsy 1992" she pierces Bob's penis and inserts a steel ball in his anus.

After the unveiling of a seven- screen crucifixion piece, The Scaffold, in 1994, Sheree becomes annoyed with Bob because he is depressed. She tells him he should be happy because everyone is talking about him.

Dick continues to follow Bob as he appears in a Nine Inch Nails video and goes off to cystic fibrosis summer camp. Finally Bob dies in a hospital. One month later Sheree unwraps a jar full of liquid taken from Bob's lungs.

A testament to one man's battle with a body which has always failed him, Sick is a remarkably insightful and moving film. It sets up the connections between illness and art and tracks the inexorcable advance of death into life. Kirby Dick's film is a fine tribute to his friend Bob Flanagan.

Geof Jarvis
EUFS Programme 1998-99