“I made the film because it seemed that people now were either completely cynical about the effectiveness of any kind of political process, or burned out and caught without any kind of language. It seemed important to re-ask certain questions, and to re-ask them as mediated through Europe, where the left is still a very vital force. If it relates to the sixties, it's only because that energy of the sixties was so good - not just here but in Europe too. Where has that all gone?”
The screening is followed by a conversation with Lizzie Borden in the context of DISSENT!
Bearing in mind the recent attempts of filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann to revitalize the spirit of 1970-80’s New York, the heydays of no wave, post-punk and “the get down” seem to be back from never really gone. Sure, the image of The Big Apple as slough of despond and beacon of creativity might be appealing as backdrop for glistening nostalgia trips and epic rock operas, but its highly doubtful whether the large-scale and hyped-up entertainment drama’s invading our screens these days can measure up to the untethered vitality and relentless waywardness of Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames (1983). Perhaps as never before, the recent restoration of this in Downtown NY and guerilla-style produced science-fiction fable manifests a radical vision that detonates like a molotov cocktail amidst an actuality that is marked by political unrest and reactionary tendencies. The speculative vision of a post-revolutionary world order which, despite rhetorical promises of change and equality, indulges in systematic discrimination and oppression might evoke quite a few echo’s of recognition today. No wonder that the film serves as a blueprint for many activist movements in the US: its zealous and kaleidoscopic portrayal of struggle against heteropatriarchy and racism appears to have only gained in urgency and pertinence. Swinging between various perspectives and characters, with the likes of Kathryn Bigelow, Adele Bertei and Florynce Kennedy playing a version of themselves, and driven by the grooves and hooks of The Red Crayola en The Bloods, this challenging reflection on gender, sex, race and class confronts us like no other with the limitations and possibilities of resistance today.
Born in Flames is the focal point of an extensive film program that was composed in consultation with Lizzie Borden. Amongst the films in the program are two other rarely screened films of Borden: her debut film Regrouping (1976), a portrait of a woman’s group whose homogeneity of race and class Borden would later counter, and Working Girls (1986), a demystification of sex work that was initiated during the production of Born in Flames. Furthermore this program offers work by friends and compagnons-de-route like Vivienne Dick, Bette Gordon and Sheila McLaughlin, as well as a series of films that have served as source of inspiration or that evoke contemporary resonances.
The program CYCLUS - LIZZIE BORDEN: BORN IN FLAMES 03.02 > 28.02 is an initiative of CINEMATEK and Courtisane.
www.cinematek.be
In collaboration with The Embassy of the United States, ERG, Macba & Tabakalera.DISSENT! is an initiative of Courtisane, Auguste Orts and Argos.
Lizzie Borden's radical feminist masterpiece is as incendiary (and relevant) now as it was at the dawn of the Reaganite '80s. Made over five years for a mere $40,000, Born in Flames centres on two female-run pirate radio stations that are fomenting rebellion against a patriarchal Socialist Democratic government that has not lived up to its promises. Galvanized by the suspicious death of an incarcerated activist, a grassroots "Women's Army" agitates for direct action, their progressive move into militancy covered by the radio stations and a trio of female reporters working for a state-run newspaper. Borden employs these multiple ideological viewpoints on the narrative action to present a kaleidoscopic range of feminist viewpoints (black, white, lesbian, straight), modelling an intersectionality that was rare in those dying days of second-wave feminism. Raising the middle finger to the white male-dominated avant-garde canon, Borden's ferocious underground classic is a cannon all its own, propelled along by a relentless post-punk energy that starts with the pumping theme song by The Red Crayola and Lora Logic and featuring performances by Adel Bertei and a young Kathryn Bigelow. (TIFF)
Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with restoration funding from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation.
