An underground film’s canonical version could exist only in its maker’s live presence

Evidence

Mekas stipulated the “original version” of No President “in the shape you projected it 15 months ago” at the Elgin. This did not happen and only one battered print was found after Smith died. Smith seldom screened No President after 1970. On those occasions, the footage was projected at silent speed to retard the speech and singing of the sound passages, with Smith playing records to accompany the silent footage. All screenings during Smith’s lifetime presupposed his presence. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 2015

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates how pre-industrial, performance-dependent art forms resist archival capture — a counterpoint to the marketization that the reader is tracking.