Agora (1992)

The video tape Agora focuses on the market place as a microcosm of the larger society seen through the eyes of a young gay man suffering from both the neurosis described above and the oppressive circumstances of small town life in the American Midwest The tape opens with an idyllic representation of the Midwest and shifts into an expressive exploration of experiences within the narrow confines of a Midwestern moral code The melodrama follows five main characters who find themselves together in a small motel Crab an agoraphobe is employed as a clerk in the motel and lives at home with his family Swallow a recently escaped con and his lover Jack Katch a woman dishonorably discharged from the military and her lover Joy The market place is a central focus for all the main charaters as a place of potential employment a site of crisis in representation the public arena where the status quo is policed and ultimately a closed barrier whereby the norm is protected