Hollywood Inferno (Episode One)

Parnes moves further into her interrogation of horror genres and the art world, with their sometimes over-lapping cults of personality. Grappling with the danger of beauty without criticality, Hollywood Inferno takes the viewer through the alienating world of a teenager named Sandy, a modern-day Dante, and follows where her aspirations toward stardom lead her.

“Parnes’ video advances the other, much darker view—that sex and self-expression are the ultimate commodities, and things don’t always work out so nicely for the youthquake in our alienated, violent land. … Parnes’ anger rivals Dante’s—or at the very least, Todd Solondz’s—in her description of affectless youth selling itself down the river, with only Satan (in various guises) serving as an adult role model.” —Tom Moody, Digital Media Tree, http://www.digitalmediatree.com/tommoody/?20467 (20 January 2003)

"The performances under Ms. Parnes’s direction are funny, raunchy and skillfully maladroit. The dialogue, sleazy and fatuous, may even sound familiar: much of it is excerpted from "found" sources, including A Clockwork Orange, a George Lucas interview and the writings of a crypto-conservative art critic. Ms Parnes, who has a smart, notably unconservative critical eye, is now at work on her first feature film. I look forward to it." -Holland Cotter, The New York Times

Note: Hollywood Inferno (Episode One) is also available as a two-channel installation.