The Dryden will screen The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean (Juleen Compton, U.S. 1966, 82 min., 35mm) as part of the UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour series.

Compton's second independent film is the story of a clairvoyant teenage girl, Norma Jean, taken advantage of by a boy band fashioned after the Beatles, determined to exploit the young woman's powers as part of a hoax revival. Filmed in the Ozarks with a cast of young, unknown actors, the picture suggests a tender tale about a pair of young companions. However, the movie quickly takes an unusual turn when Norma Jean and her friend Vance pick up an enormous plastic dome they've ordered. Stylistically accomplished, the movie is an impressive example of American independent feature filmmaking during the mid-1960s and an uncommon portrayal, for the time, of female agency.

[source: George Eastman Museum calendar, 2018-May-21]