Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

William E. Jones’ Tearoom consists entirely of footage created in 1962 by the Mansfield, Ohio police department documenting clandestine sexual encounters between men in a public restroom. Ultimately, this footage led to the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of approximately thirty men. Employing a surprisingly impressionistic pastel color palette and a curious “non-style” of cinematography evocative at times of Warhol, this material is presented by Jones more as “document” than documentary—in silence, with minimal editorial intervention, and devoid of direct commentary.