Naked States
Art, publicity, and "the politics of nudity" go under the cultural microscope in this award-winning documentary. Photographer Spencer Tunick specializes in nudes--large groups of them, usually in public places.Naked Statesfollows Tunick from one of his many arrests in New York through a national tour in a quest to get a nude photo in each state and a gallery showing at the end of it.Naked Statescombines footage of Tunick (at times uninhibitedly whiny) at work with interviews with his subjects and the occasional wry comment by his girlfriend. Tunick's images are undeniably compelling, as are many of his subjects' reasons for stripping off and posing. Most interesting are the sequences involving a genial Burning Man crowd and some surprisingly uncooperative nudists. The film contains, obviously, quite a bit of full-frontal nudity, but none of it is eroticized--an interesting phenomenon in itself. Well worth watching.--Ali Davis