Ericka Beckman
1951–

Beckman began to create films with narrative structures that she likened to games or folklore. She shot elaborate performances on crudely constructed sets, adding animation and chantlike music to evoke a fragmented, ambiguous experience. Her techniques were often labor-intensive, with multiple layers of film hand-altered and edited together to make the final piece. Critical response to Beckman’s early work was divided: in 1978 one critic called her “easily one of the most interesting young filmmakers around,” while her appearance at the 1983 New York Film Festival earned jeers from the audience.

It was at this festival that Beckman debuted You the Better (1983), an absurdist meditation on competition in which a cast of two dozen performers, led by Bickerton, competes in a nonsensical gambling game that combines elements of basketball, dodgeball, and roulette (the Better of the title is a play on bettor). Although the film features childlike primary colors, punchy animated graphics, sports lingo, and an upbeat jingle, Beckman twists these elements until they become menacing.

Power of the Spin is a preparatory study for You the Better. Beckman has said that such expressive, freehand drawings “allowed me to work directly from my imagination and try to see if any idea or motif from that realm could be transformed into a performance or prop sequence for a film.”