THE GREAT DOMINATRIX
a short film and live performance against fascism
2018
The Great Dominatrix, 1-channel HD video, 5:40m, 2018
Weitz satirizes modern-day political power by performing as the golem in Hasidic drag, combining Chaplin-esque physicality with layered cultural references. In a striking scene, she mounts a plastic inflatable globe, with rapid cuts highlighting the various ways she sexualizes the prop. The film critiques contemporary rulers and the antisemitic trope of Jewish global domination, while also imbuing the sci-fi figure of Yiddish folklore with a provocative edge. In 2021, Jewish dance scholar Dr. Hannah Schwadron published an academic essay on the film titled “Redressing Power through Hasidic Drag: Julie Weitz in My Golem as the Great Dominatrix,” featured in *Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies* (Purdue University Press, Volume 39, Issue 3).
The Great Dominatrix, film still, 2018
Refashioning herself as a femme dominatrix in repurposed religious garb and exaggerated Jewish signifiers, the artist revises constructions of the folk golem figure.
Hannah Schwadron, Shofar magazine
The Great Dominatrix, live performance commissioned by L.A.N.D., Los Angeles, CA, 2018
The Great Dominatrix, film still, 2018
The Great Dominatrix has been screened, performed, and exhibited at the 92nd St Y (NYC, NY), The Jewish Museum (Augsburg, Germany), Spring Break Art Fair (LA, CA), Los Angeles Metaphysical Library (LA, CA), The Holland Project (Reno, NV), Experiments in Cinema Festival (Albuquerque, NM), and Coaxial Arts Foundation (LA, CA). In 2018, Weitz first performed The Great Dominatrix at Blue Roof Studios in Los Angeles, commissioned by Los Angeles Nomadic Division and curated by Irina Gusin.
My Golem as The Great Dominatrix, archival inkjet print, variable dimensions, 2018