Irwin I. Shanah

A series of figure studies using high-speed HD video, and inspired by the works of Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey.

In 1983, Oliver Nicholas, at thirteen, is well-poised to enter the precocious teenage world of first-sex, vodka and possible-love in New York City when he is traumatized by the stroke of his housekeeper (and only true maternal figure), a sixty-five-year-old Chilean woman named Aida. What was supposed to be an exhilarating and somewhat fearful rite of passage - diving into the exciting, fast-paced world of first experiences - quickly becomes skewed by an incomprehensible depression, and a house of interior horrors. Surrounded by women - his untraditional, Spanish, photographer mother (more interested in the role of confidante than mother) his sister, a comedic, door-slamming tormentor, marked by her parent's divorce; and Aida, his silver-haired emotional focal point on the verge of death in Lenox Hill Hospital - Oliver struggles to maintain his role as "man of the house" and his sanity.

"The Perfect Murder" brings viewers some of the most diabolical, perplexing murder cases to land on detectives’ desks – the kind of cases that make or break careers and provide fodder for Hollywood mystery movies. These ingenious killers are every detective’s worst nightmare. Whether by planting false evidence, or writing anonymous letters to police, these murderers will stop at nothing to stay one step ahead and get away with the perfect murder. In this program, we focus on the investigation, as detectives slowly put the pieces together to unravel the twisted truth. As detectives uncover new evidence, and turn to new suspects, we flashback through stylized reenactment, to depict each possible theory of what may have happened. For the killer, it’s THE PERFECT MURDER. Detectives hit dead end after dead end, and wrong suspects are discarded. But one new clue can lead to another and the cold case suddenly gets hot. Truth is, it’s the perfect murder... until it’s not.