Screening of ‘Skin I’m In’ more than skin-deep

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Author: Vivien Reece

Occidental is hosting an advanced screening of Professor of Art History and the Visual Arts Broderick Fox’s documentary, “Skin I’m In,” this evening at 7 p.m. in Thorne Hall. At the film’s screening tonight, viewers will learn about Fox’s struggles to reconcile his varying identities of alcoholic, gay man, teacher, scholar and artist, as well as the transformative power of art and the fluidity of identity.

“The screening is now co-sponsored by the Center for Gender Equity, the ResEd Multicultural Hall and the Queer-Straight Alliance, which is really heartening, as one of my major hopes with this project is to engage young adults with its questions and challenges,” Fox said.

Fox started working on the film six years ago after being saved from the tracks of a Berlin subway, unconscious and dangerously drunk. Left for dead, he was saved by the people who pulled him out of the tracks. From this near-death experience, Fox realized that he needed to start making healthy choices, both physically and spiritually. He embarked on an artistic journey of spiritual healing by befriending Pacific Northwest artist Rande Cook and tattoo artist Zulu of Los Angeles. With their expertise, as well as spiritual guidance, empathy and friendship, Fox spent six years brainstorming and “defining a sense of self through experience rather than yielding to the status quo,” according to the film’s website.

The long process of making this film has also connected Fox deeply with Occidental College—in fact, he had only been working at Occidental for one year when he hit rock bottom in Berlin. Fox has discussed the art form of documentary with hundreds of students and in general has exchanged ideas with them throughout this process. “This is very much an Oxy film,” he said, expressing his excitement to see what Occidental students will think.

Over the course of these six years, Fox turned his body into a “living canvas,” getting a tattoo over his whole back that “marked a commitment to a more integrated approach to living.” In some superficial ways, “Skin I’m In” is about Fox’s tattoo and the experience around it; in more profound and universally relevant ways, it’s about choice and how one can choose to create, change and transform one’s identity.

Identity is not a fixed thing, according to Fox. “There is that myth of the one harmonious individual,” Fox said, alluding to the idea that people should all look and behave similarly. This false idea of a single ideal identity caused him pain and confusion growing up and even through his documentary project. “A lot of heartache came from a search for identity. But identity is changing; there is no fixed destination,” he said. Just like art, Fox said, “Identity is a form of play and experimentation. We are always performing and changing, and there is a joy in that too.”

In his director’s statement on the film’s website, Fox said, “It is my hope that this film will impact others who have their own internal battles—be they around issues of sexuality, past trauma, creative frustration, addiction, or cultural ostracism—revealing that there is life, purpose, art, even momentary states of grace beyond these cultural and private wars.”

In his process of transformation, Fox was drawn to nature as a higher power. Fox had always been interested in the myths of the Pacific Northwest and ultimately chose characters from three of them to represent in a tattoo. It wasn’t an easy decision. “There was this problem of me, a white male asking this other guy to place his religious symbols on my body,” he said. But now he realizes he learned about himself and the world through his discussions with Zulu and Cook. “We should all form identity and heritage from exchange and experience,” he said. Fox realized with time that despite the vast cultural and experiential differences between himself, Cook and Zulu, “art unites us.”

“I’m also hopeful that the event will bring back alumni from the program, bringing together old and new students, along with also the community partners, staff and faculty colleagues I’ve worked with over the past eight years at Occidental,” Fox said.

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