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[ MARY REID KELLEY ] It was a huge 
change to film at EMPAC with any

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sort of technological assist you could want.

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The film that we did before "You Make Me Iliad," we filmed partly in my parents’ basement and partly in our apartment.

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- With a white undershirt and this shirt 
you won’t be able to tell.

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- Fancy pants. 
- Totally.

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So for this film, I invited my sister Alice and Alice’s husband, Micah, and then my youngest sister, Juliet.

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- Brainy McBrainyton, Maximilian....

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- Max-milian.

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- Maximilian Robespierre perfectly 
memorized Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

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Citizens bored by his hyper-verbosity, shouted 
in unison, merde, sans chapeau!

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- Okay, you know Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau was an important music theorist?

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- Yes, I know.

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- I feel like I should sing this one.

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- And you know what, what he did?

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Oh yes, yes, please, please sing it. 
Just sing, improvise right now.

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- [ laughs ] Sorry.

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[ ALICE REID PRUISNER ] We were always very creative 
growing up. And a lot of what we did,

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growing up, I kind of see in her art 
now. We would create these elaborate

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plays that we would put on that Mary, as the 
oldest of course was always the instigator.

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- So try singing your awesome 
little tune with like perfectly

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memorized Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 
Citizens bored.....

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- So like there’s a change in tone. 
- Okay.

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♪ Brainy McBrainy to Maximilian 
Robespierre ♪

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♪ perfectly memorized Jean-Jacques Rousseau ♪

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♪ Citizens bored by his hyper-verbosity 
shouted in unison, ♪

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[ ALL ] Merde! Sans chapeau.

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- Alice, show us your 
throat-slashing gesture.

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[ grunts ] 
- Yeah.

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- If I start out higher and circle below. 
- There, that’s totally clear.

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- Should I bare my teeth? Arrggh.

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- Do whatever you want

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- While I’m saying, "merde, sans chapeau.'

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- That’s good. That looks really 
good.

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- I think Alice should go like this. 
- Like what?

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- Can’t see the actual like throat-cutting, 
it’s just the hand, like this.

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- Yeah.

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- You think I should 
use my left hand instead?

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- One More? 
- Yeah.

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[ MICAH PRUISNER ] Brainy McBrainyton, Maximilian 
Robespierre perfectly memorized Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

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Citizens bored by his 
hyper-verbosity shouted in unison...

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[ ALL ] Merde! Sans chapeau.

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[ JULIET REID ] She has always had an 
interesting part to play in the entire family’s perspectives on life.

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When I was in 
junior high, she was bringing home feminist

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literature for me to read from college. And 
just giving me new things to think about.

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- And I kind of want the 
snow shakers to be up high.

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- High? Like this?

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- Like still on the 
screen, but high.

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- Are we recording?
- Yeah.

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- Jelly tart, jelly tart, General Bonaparte.

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Sentimentality worried all France.

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He cried, saccharine tears on the banks of the Volga 
while Waterloo waterworks spotted his pants.

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- This is going to be a tricky 
time for you guys

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cause you’re going to have to put it 
together and yell, "100 Voltaires."

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We'll get you to scoot...

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- And actually I suggest that we need to 
start bringing our hands together to do the

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Jacob’s Ladder before, so that when they, when it 
comes together, it’s, bing "100 Voltaires."

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[ MICAH ] I’m an engineer. So 
I have little to no background in art.

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And therefore when I see Mary’s artwork, it, it is always so different from what I normally encounter

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that it 
makes me think a lot harder about it.

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- I think we'll be okay.

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- So we’re not using 
audio for this. So just...

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- Ready to go?

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- Yeah, I think, I think I am.

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- Mary, could...since we’re not 
doing audio, can you be like "and stop"?

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- Yeah.
- Okay.

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- Okay, I'll just
- Just hiss or something so you don't have to move your mouth.

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[ crosstalk ]
- Okay, yeah. Okay.

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[ ALL ] Twinkle toe, twinkle toe, Dennis P. Diderot. 
Dreamed of a government led by his heirs.

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Nightmares so ghastly, so anti-Enlightenment 
gave him the shock of 100 Voltaires.

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[ PATRICK KELLEY ] Mary came across this map. 
It’s this old map of Paris, pre-Haussmann

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renovation of Paris. The design of this map is an 
inspiration for making some of the buildings.

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What we thought we would do is try to recreate some 
of the architecture that you see in this map,

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this sort of cartoon-like etching hatch-marking 
architecture as three-dimensional models

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so that we would have these objects 
as possible virtual set elements.

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[ REID KELLEY ] It’s so wild that they 
had electricity to do this.

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- That's the actual Haussmann time?

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- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

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He wouldn’t put electricity 
on the streets, he wanted gas on the streets,

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cause he thought it was more 
aesthetic.

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But here, you want to see it?

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And here you can see the texture of 
the street. It’s like a cobblestone.

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- Well yeah, we have that...

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[ REID KELLEY ] I think that one of the reasons that 
I’m motivated to do research and to do all the

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reading is that it’s very much a set of values 
that learning is good. Books are good.

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Things in books will help you.

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Who knows where it came 
from? Probably in large part from my parents.

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I grew up in South Carolina. I’m the eldest 
of four children.

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My next sister is Alice, and then my brother Dan. And 
then my youngest sister, Juliet.

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My parents met doing their master’s in 
history.

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My mom and dad or notorious for never just driving by a historical marker, we always pull over to see what it is.

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In the South, at least in terms of the Civil 
War, there’s this historical burden.

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You’re aware pretty early on that there isn’t just one version 
that’s accepted,

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that people are kind of tugging at this historical record,

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you know wanting 
to manipulate the history, one way or another.

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- Okay, that’s good. This shot is really quick. 
It’s just a couple seconds.

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So run out, put the chairs down. I’ll put the board 
on. Hop on it, start doing this and kind

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of kicking my heels. And then I want both 
of you to kind of like lean over the chair.

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[ REID KELLEY ] The director role is not something 
that comes super naturally.

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I think that’s one of the reasons I really 
value getting to work with my family members,

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it makes it easier for me to ask for what I want.

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- Okay, good. Now, now when you do 
that, like jostle each other like.....

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- Yeah, like, here, I want the better view, [ laughs ] 
- I want the better view.

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- No, no, I want to get it.
- Okay.

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[ laughs ]

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- Excellent, we got it. Yep.

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- Step back and 
lay back down so I should see when...

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[ REID KELLEY ] The entire concept comes out 
of the research and out of the reading.

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- See, 'cause I don't have a pillow, it’s 
going to make it a lot harder.
- Yeah.

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[ REID KELLEY ] And it’s my choice of what we do.

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- So I think you’re going to 
have to bring it around to the side.

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[ REID KELLEY ] And then once we’re kind of 
on the way.....

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My husband Pat, is very enthusiastic to just 
pick up whatever is happening and run with it.

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- Do we want to be straight down?

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- Uh, yeah.

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- Is that about like this? Eric would it be 
crazy for me to shoot from that gap right there?

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- No, not at all.

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[ REID KELLEY ] I never would have made that big 
leap from being a painter to something as,

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as complicated and as technically 
involved as, as this work without Pat.

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- Secretly, secretly Queen Marie Antoinette 
studied her algebra all night in bed.

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Scholars remarked that the mathematician her beauty 
resolved to make knowledge widespread.

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- That was it, yeah. That was great.
- Okay.

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- Awesome.

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- Okay.

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Secretly, secretly Queen Marie Antoinette 
studied her algebra all night in bed.

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Scholars remarked that the mathematician her beauty 
resolved to make knowledge widespread.

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- After we shoot this and we’ll 
shoot that. And then we have a break.

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Then you guys are just going to have to hang 
out, maybe eat another piece of pizza

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while I get into Sisyphus.

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And then we’ve got a 
couple more larger, wider shots. So.....

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- We have the baguettes, right? 
[ overlapping chatter ]
- Oh, yes, and the baguettes.

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- I baguette you.

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- Yes, the dandy outfits, 
yeah. So we’re doing good, but we got a lot more to go.

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So... [ sighs ] So stay down.

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[ REID KELLEY ] I love to put on makeup. 
That’s one of my favorite parts of,

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of making the work, is getting 
to, to draw the face on.

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My mother never wore makeup and 
I was always obsessed with it.

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The eyes block out everything.

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When I look out of the eyes, I see very little, which is great.

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And it’s, it’s helped me do the performance. And I don’t think I could have started performing without them.

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- About in the right spot?
- Mm-hmm, looks great.

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- Okay.

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[JULIET ] What exactly is the 
title? This syph....

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[ ALICE ] Okay, I always...Sis

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[JULIET ] Sisyphus, that’s right? Sisyphus.

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[ MICAH ] I’m guessing partially because 
it actually rhymes with syphilis.

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- Syph...Syph...

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- The Syphilis of 
Sisyphus.

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- No, is that right? [ chuckles ]

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[ REID KELLEY ] The title of the new 
film is "The Syphilis of Sisyphus."

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Most of the, the text from this film is just kind of the extended polemical musings of this woman,

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this female character, Sisyphus. 
She’s a prostitute.

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At the beginning we 
kind of see her getting ready to go out

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and she’s doing her toilet 
and putting on her makeup.

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- So now remember when she starts, 
she’s like not mad.

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- Right.
- She’s, she’s almost sad.

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But she’s bitter. She’s not like sweetly sad. She’s 
not like resigned sad, she’s bitter sad.

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- Pouting sad. 
- Face right.

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- I can actually see my reflection 
in the camera, it’s kind of helpful.

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- Yeah.
[ indistinct speech ]

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- That’s so Magritte. I didn’t 
even think of that till just now.

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- [ laughs ] It is.

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- It’s like Crazy Kat meets Magritte.

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Nature sold me a lie. And I’ve kept the deceit 
on my face to remind me, her falsehoods repeat

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like the seasons renew. Same advice every time 
because nature can counsel me, nothing but crime.

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[ REID KELLEY ] One of the things that I love about encountering 
paintings is looking at them over time and coming

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back and, and viewing it again. So when I 
make video works I love the idea of people

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coming back to them and seeing them over 
and over.

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And always get something new.

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Her utopian swindles profess to be cures, but 
in fact generations

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while smeared with manure as a young naïve milkmaid in apron and braids,

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I too was revolting on top of the barricades. 
Praising the rustic I fell to gourmet

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and my radical urges 
were lost due to negligee.

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Shamed by this lapse into luxuries error, I hid 
my defections till this happy mirror

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revealed a new cause for which Sisyphus shoulders the 
burdens of charm crying: Make Beauty Boulder.