Cinematic Journeys: Two Films by Juleen Compton

Stranded follows Raina, a young American woman (played by Compton), traveling through Greece with her American lover (Gary Collins), and her French, gay best friend (Gian Pietro Calasso). A free spirit, Raina rejects the limitations of marriage and domesticity imposed on women of her generation and instead chooses to adventure across Europe on a quest for self-determination.

The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean is the story of a clairvoyant teenage girl, Norma Jean (Sharon Henesy), who struggles between the responsibility of seeing the future and the attentions of a rock-n-roll band (Marco St. John, Sam Waterston, Skip Hinnant) set on exploiting her powers for profit. Centered around an enigmatic dome structure delivered to the magical pastoral Ozark countryside, this film explores a battle of wills, both spiritual and material.

Juleen Compton, working in Europe and the United States, finds inspiration in the rebel spirit and stylistic innovation of the French New Wave to create characters in search of identity, and explores the uncommon portrayal, for the era, of female agency.

As one of the few American women making feature films during the 1960s, Compton’s work demonstrates independent filmmaking’s resolve to push against the boundaries of tradition and create a new cinematic language.

Stranded and The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean received a limited theatrical run during their initial releases and have rarely been screened since. Flicker Alley is honored to present the films as part of the “Flicker Fusion” series for their home video premiere. Both films were restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, with funding provided by Century Arts Foundation: Stranded from the 35mm acetate duplicate picture negative and 35mm original acetate negative; and The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean from the 35mm original picture negative and 35mm original track negative.