Jesse Erica Epstein

Jesse Erica Epstein

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Most Known for...

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Bethlehem Steel 2010

Bethlehem Steel was once a thriving force of American Industrial progress. Workers at “The Steel” forged most of the New York City skyline — including the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings. In addition to the Golden Gate Bridge and armaments for WWII. The plant was recently demolished to make way for the Sands Casino (owned by Sheldon Adelson). Starting in 1997, a group of artists who share a mission and obsession, have been collaborating and sneaking into the abandoned plant to explore & document before much of it was lost to redevelopment and time. A combination of Super 8, 16mm, video and stills, this short film is part of a larger project.
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34x25x36 2008

34 x 25 x 36 is Jesse Epstein's third installment in a trilogy of films (along with The Guarantee and the Sundance award-winning Wet Dreams and False Images) examining issues of body image from quirky and revealing angles. This time, we are taken into the inner workings of the Patina V Mannequin Factory in City of Industry, Calif., where the artistry, craft and marketing that go into creating "the ideal woman of the moment" — in plastic — are accompanied by a remarkable amount of reflection on just what that ideal means (one thing it means is a 34" x 25" x 36" figure). Patina V is a place where the owner will tell women (and then run for cover), "There are no perfect bodies out there. We make the perfect body." And the chief designer harkens back to the roots of his craft not only in French 19th-century wax figures but also in the religious icons of medieval times.
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Wet Dreams and False Images 2004

Dee-Dee the barber is a self-proclaimed "booty expert," who covers his wall with magazine cut-outs of women. But when Dee-Dee is introduced to the art of media manipulation he may never look at beauty the same way again.