Hi, Mom! 1970

In this provocative drama, a Vietnam veteran and aspiring filmmaker Jon Rubin is hired by producer Joe Banner to make a pornographic film. Rubin, who has been quietly watching his neighbor Judy Bishop, uses the opportunity to seduce her and secretly film their sexual encounter with a camera mounted on his apartment window. When the camera tilts during filming and ruins the scene, the dissatisfied Banner withdraws the offer, leaving Rubin to face the consequences of his choices and the direction his life might take.

Seeking a different outlet for his restless ambitions, Rubin joins an experimental acting troupe led by another neighbor. The troupe mounts a controversial production called Be Black, Baby! A white theater crowd attends, first asked to eat soul food as a provocative setup. The audience is further unsettled as they are asked to wear shoe polish on their faces while the African American actors perform in whiteface and push the boundaries of performance and power. The tension escalates as the audience tries to escape but is blocked in the building’s elevator by the troupe. In a shocking sequence, two Black actors violently assault a white audience member, and Rubin appears in the role of an NYPD policeman to arrest members of the audience under the pretense that they are Black. The entire sequence ends with the battered crowd taking to public television, vocally supporting the show in a moment that blurs the lines between art, violence, and media sensationalism.

Rubin makes the decision to stay in the city and continue his life with the troupe. He marries Judy and finds work as an insurance salesman, a steady job that juxtaposes with his earlier artistic pursuit. Yet his inner tension deepens as he devises a drastic plan: he plants a bomb in the building where he and Judy live, demolishing it. From the street, Rubin observes the devastation and speaks to a TV reporter, a moment that ties his personal disintegration to the broader chaotic world the film has portrayed.