fbpx The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean | George Eastman Museum

Please note: The exhibition Erica Baum: the bite in the ribbon—a paper show is closed today due to technical issues in the gallery. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to reopen it as soon as possible.

The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean

Thursday, May 24, 2018, 7:30 p.m., Dryden Theatre

(Juleen Compton, US 1966, 82 min., 35mm)

UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour. Compton’s second independent film is the story of a clairvoyant teenage girl, Norma Jean, taken advantage of by a boy band fashioned after the Beatles, determined to exploit the young woman’s powers as part of a hoax revival. Filmed in the Ozarks with a cast of young, unknown actors, the picture suggests a tender tale about a pair of young companions. However, the movie quickly takes an unusual turn when Norma Jean and her friend Vance pick up an enormous plastic dome they’ve ordered. Stylistically accomplished, the movie is an impressive example of American independent feature filmmaking during the mid-1960s and an uncommon portrayal, for the time, of female agency. Preservation funded by Century Arts Foundation.