On 7 September 1951 William Burroughs shot his wife Joan dead. He wanted to compete with William Tell, she put a glass on her head, he missed… This tragedy was the occasion for the conversation with the other side. What she meant to William is well known; in this film Joan tries to make clear what her own death meant to her and what William meant to her. The film is almost one long dream sequence in which her thoughts become entangled with the outside world. Joan’s excessive (ab)use of alcohol and benzedrine stimulates her hallucinogenic spirit.A Short Conversation from the Grave with Joan Burroughs was made on super-8 and processed on video. The result is nevertheless a masterpiece of cinematographic inventiveness.
