Heidi 1992

Paul McCarthy is a very important figure in the fine art world, a conceptual artist who works with different media including video. His video art includes very scatological performance art & abstract non-narrative montage. He's an extreme postmodernist, probably one of the first "post-postmodern", and his work usually deals with destructing the power dynamics of society and dramatizing the sickness of Western culture.

Heidi is loosely based on the famous Scandinavian fable but it is purely inspired by it. McCarthy collaborates with Mike Kelley to take that story's cast (Heidi, Peter & Grandpa) and expose the psycho-sexual tension in their dichotomy as archetype to form a mirror of society in 1992 or perhaps forever. They very obviously draws comparisons to the archetypes in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and adopts much of that film's aesthetic to illustrate this. Corpse-like mannequins in lieu of actors, grotesque masks, genders swapped artificially, the dark oppression of the dysfunctional family home and dinner as a place of ritual and twisted power game.

This is really authentic footage of a fringe artist of great note doing his thing in a time where the American art film was struggling. And this is truly an art film in the classic sense. Its all experimentation and not about exploitation or commercial interests in any way. That purity is the obvious goal for McCarthy and even if you find this too weird or don't get much of it, the energy and focus is refreshing. "Heidi" greatly inspired Harmony Korine, whose "Trash Humpers" is essentially an intentionally pop/hipster remake. 

The whole thing is on youtube for the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NLoGyoitqA