Slamdance Review: Jessica Hankey ‘s ONE REHEARSES, THE OTHER DOESN’T challenges the boundaries of performance
Jessica Hankey ’s One Rehearses, the Other Doesn’t is an ambitious experimental short that blurs the lines between performance, memory and personal history. Through an intricate mix of improvisation and staged rehearsal, the film examines the nature of self-presentation and the mechanisms of storytelling. The result is an evocative yet restrained meditation on the complex existential syntax of relationships, sexuality, power dynamics and both personal and artistic reinvention.
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At the center of the film is Marjorie Annapav, who plays herself in a layered, semi-fictionalized narrative. The film unfolds as she engages in an improvisational exchange with a fictionalized performance teacher, drawing from her own past. Annapav’s life—a storied and often brutal existence focused on psychological and physical survival—becomes the raw material for her art. She revisits moments from her personal history, including the murder of her boyfriend by the mob and her time as a sex worker in 1970s New York. The film does not depict these events in a traditional biographical manner but instead deconstructs them through fragmented depictions of rehearsals and exploration, offering multiple interpretations of a single experience.
This approach successfully challenges conventional storytelling—through imagery, dialogue and space, it becomes an intimately emotional experience. Hankey does not attempt to craft a singular truth but instead explores the tension between what is rehearsed and what is spontaneous. The distinction between Annapav’s lived reality and her performance becomes increasingly fluid, leaving the audience to question whether authenticity is ever possible within the confines of a staged environment yet feeling deeply connected to the journey. In a sense, the film itself mirrors the structure of both a rehearsal and life—open-ended, uncertain and shifting.
Annapav is an enigmatic presence. A peripheral figure in American Surrealism, she was known for her relationship with artist William Copley, who once claimed to have sold his art collection to pay her to marry him. Here, she emerges as both subject and storyteller, actively shaping the narrative rather than passively recounting it. Her onscreen presence is captivating, conveying vulnerability and control in equal measure. She is constantly negotiating power in her narrative—whether through economic transactions, gendered expectations or the artistic process itself.
Jessica Hankey ‘s ONE REHEARSES, THE OTHER DOESN’T challenges the boundaries of performance
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The film’s visual style reinforces its themes. Hankey employs a pared-down aesthetic that eschews traditional cinematic gloss in favor of an observational approach. The camera lingers on moments of hesitation, repetition and revision, drawing attention to the mechanics of performance rather than disguising them for a polished artiface. The editing, too, is deliberate, leaving room for pauses and shifts in tone that underscore the unpredictability of improvisation. The film is not about presenting a cinematic final product but about exposing the act of construction and process itself as art.
Hankey’s decision to keep the film’s structure loose allows for an organic, unfolding and sometimes unraveling experience. Occasionally, this openness may feel disorienting, particularly for audiences accustomed to more linear narratives. However, when viewed with a sense of wonder and anticipation, this structural ambiguity serves a poignant purpose, inviting viewers to engage with the material on their own terms. Rather than prescribing meaning, the film encourages individualized interpretation.
One Rehearses, the Other Doesn’t is a compelling study of identity, performance and reinvention. By positioning rehearsal as a space of discovery, Hankey not only examines the creative process but also challenges the idea that personal history is fixed. Annapav’s journey is not one of resolution but of continual re-examination, making for a film that lingers long after its final frame. It is a work that resists easy categorization, asking its audience to reconsider the ways in which stories—both personal and artistic—are told, reshaped and performed.
Slamdance Review: Jessica Hankey ‘s ONE REHEARSES, THE OTHER DOESN’T challenges the boundaries of performance