Two New Movies Revivify the Portrait

There’s a spectre haunting modern documentary filmmaking—the eternal return of Jason Holliday, the subject of Shirley Clarke’s 1967 film “ Portrait of Jason .” It’s not the first portrait film but it’s the definitive one—not least because its raison d’être is built into it. Holliday, an unsuccessful actor, gives of himself with a reckless, unself-sparing profligacy, and Clarke turns the audiovisual recording of him into a work of art in itself, one in which Holliday’s presence and performance aren’t merely preserved but enshrined and exalted. Portrait films—whether promotional celebrations, like “ Joan Baez: I Am a Noise ,” or more reserved observational works, such as “ Honeyland ,” have become a staple of nonfiction cinema. With proliferation has come predictability, but right now