Filming itself could serve as a social ritual independent of capturing footage

Evidence

As funded by Mekas, Barbara Rubin (credited but not apparent in Chumlum) continued filming, including, as Mekas noted in his diary, empty camera footage of Jack Smith: “She said he is like a child: as long as you film him, he is happy. So, like a good mother, she kept filming Jack. Since there was no film, she kept rewinding and shooting five times on the same roll.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 488

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of rewinding and shooting five times on the same empty roll to keep Jack Smith happy is a light, self-contained anecdote.
• SEED: Material for an essay on the ontology of filmmaking when the camera becomes a social pacifier rather than a recording device.