"SHIRLEY CLARKE IN OUR TIME" tells the story of filmmaker Shirley Clarke’s life and work and celebrates her vitality, strength and influence on the history of twentieth century filmmaking. It has been called "a herald of video sampling art" and wraps the spectator into its eerily mutual yet materially unique rare footage of black and white childhood home movies made by Shirley's mother, intercut with discarded industrial color film fragments found by Cameron in the late 1980s when beginning this project. An insightful essay by MoMA Film Curator Jytte Jensen notes the world portrayed by Cameron in this film as a 'frightening one'.

"This is a film about pioneering avant-garde women filmmakers from different generations and cultural backgrounds, and how the world receives/received their art. Shirley Clarke’s legacy is both historic and controversial; she was a brilliant colorist and groundbreaking editor of the short dance film. Her hallmark longer works introduced contextual obscenity into American Cinema scripted dialogue in the 1960s and she was boycotted by the contemporary press. As a film professor, she became a mentor to many younger filmmakers, including Cameron, whose legacy also rests in the experimental film tradition. Cameron's films use her technical invention, Cinematic Paper Emulsion. In 2001, after two decades of work, Cameron was awarded the patent for her innovation, making her the first experimental filmmaker to receive such an honor."  -William Sloan, late Curator & Chief Librarian, The Circulating Film Library, MoMA