In a small, worn-down room in New York, tension hangs in the air as jazz music played by musicians fills the space. In reality, a group of jazz musicians are gathered in the apartment, waiting for a meeting with a drug dealer. Also present are the filmmaker Jim and his crew, eager to capture the drug deal on film. The film crew hides microphones, cameras, and lights in the apartment to record them. Jim ends up making a deal with them in order to shoot the movie. Based on Jack Gelber’s play The Connection, this film openly addresses the social conflicts between races. Shirley Clarke’s first feature film, The Connection, became a landmark in New York independent cinema and one of the first successful cases to challenge the city’s censorship laws. She went on to make films featuring Black protagonists and remained a pioneering director in American independent cinema.

Loan of the film print with kind support of Arsenal - Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V..