I am not an actor, but a writer and filmmaker. I have acted occasionally though. And I have actor friends, so the sentiments expressed in SELF+TAPE were not foreign to me. And frankly, when you get down to it, the audition experience is not that different from applying to a film festival with a project. Will the programmers think my submission is interesting enough? Brave enough? Is the cinematography effective, pretty or polished enough? Or is my idea simply too much? And am I too young or too old to even try? And is there any point in trying if the system is rigged, as ‘Grace’ says in SELF+TAPE ??? All legitimate questions.
Yet despite it all, SELF+TAPE is a love letter to actors. While the film is firmly rooted in our current zeitgeist, displaying all the invisible labour that goes into making a self tape, as well as both the frustration and the inevitable spiraling of self-reflection into self-hatred, it also beautifully shows the life experience that each actor as an individual is able to bring to a role, what ultimately makes a performance human and genuine - alive.
And through it all James Cleave displays his sensibility for weaving humour throughout the narrative, marrying the comedic with the tragic, creating something relatable across different generations and industries. If you get the chance, do yourself a favor and watch it.
You can watch the trailer here!