BORN
IN FLAMES I am convinced that if I quit everything
and just devoted my life to making sure this film is seen by absolutely everyone,
I will have done something truly worthwhile. Set in the future, battling feminist
factions (materialists, socailists etc) drive around in milk truck style vans
running rebel radio stations and planning various attacks on the system. Featuring
actual activists (most notably Florynce Kennedy), this movie is my total punk
rock dream come true. It mixes my two favorite things, feminism and the "what
if" scenario, to create a blueprint for building coalitions across lines
of class, race and sexuality. It's directed by Lizzie Borden who also made
"Working Girls", not the Melanie Griffiths one, the one about how
boring the sex trade actually is. That movie is definitely worth renting too.
MARY PATTEN Mary Patten not only made a really great video called
Riot Grannies, she has also documented a lot of protests. A few years ago
she showed a bunch of footage, mostly of protests involving AIDS activists,
at The New School in New York City and talked about her experiences watching
The ACT UP group she was in work really well sometimes and other times really
not work, to the point of crumbling. I left the lecture hall inspired to face
the truth even when it doesn't match up or fit into a sound byte. I think
she is amazing.
JOE-JOE
JOE-JOE is a video by Cecilia Dougherty and Leslie Singer, it
was made in 1993. In it Cecilia and Leslie, (who are genius lesbian feminist
experimental videomakers in real life) star simultaneously as famed playwright
Joe Orton. It is one of the best things I have ever seen in my life.
KIKI
AND HERB Some say Kiki &Herb are a "drag caberet act"
but me, I like to think of them as a way of life. They are my alternate reality
version of The Grateful Dead...I will follow them anywhere. Who else but Kiki
could mix Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer with Patti Smiths' Hors es while
telling a story about her and Herb's horrible childhood in "the institional"?
YES Yoko Ono- This was a beautifully curated art show that toured
the country a few years back, there is a book that went with the show, also
called YES. I have too much to say about this artist actually,like how much
her intelligence, strength, persistent imagination and willingness to share
just keep on helping me wake up each day. I feel lucky to be on the same planet
she is on.
LESBIAN ETHICS This book looks at lesbian women's relationships
with each other, especially when it comes to community building and enacting
radical politics. I think it is crucail reading for anyone who has ever been
in a tight knit scene of activists. It mixes psychology, philosophy and radical
lesbian feminism in a way that few writers would dare. In my alternate reality
this is required public education reading!
JUDY
CHICAGO:
THE DINNER PARTY This hugemongous feminist art work was recently
bought by the Brooklyn Museum of Art which is great because it was completely
crazy that it was in storage for so long. (You mean a totally important radical
feminist art work was hidden in a basement somewhere, No way!) The Dinner
Party was actually created by hundreds of women and a few men who came together
under Chicago's direction and vision to create a massive table with ornate
settings representing lost and/or suppressed female heroes. Besides her artwork
Chicago also started one of the first feminist art programs along with Miriam
Shapiro in the early seventies. Her art class took over a building, dubbed
it 'Womanhouse' and filled it top to bottom with feminist art and performances.
When dudes talk me to me about how Bob Dylan or the Sex Pistols changed everything
for them I like to cover my ears and chant "Judy Chicago, Judy Chicago,
Judy Chicago".
MARGARET
CHO She is like Rumplestiltsken turning straw into gold cuz she
can take totally tragic stuff and make it funny without trivializing it. Besides
that she is the smartest, most talented, beautifulest woman in the whole world.
NOT FOR SALE: Feminism and Art in the USA during the 70's This
90 minute video features over 100 visual artists associated with The Feminist
Art Movement as researched and presented by artist/critic Laura Cottingham.
It contains amazing footage of various performances, installations and protests
and has a soundtrack by Yoko Ono. If you are a student it is time to demand
that yr school buy a copy of this so you can see it.
FAVE BOOKS
THE ILLUSIONS OF POSTMODERNISM / Terry Eagleton
THE POWER OF FEMINIST ART:THE AMERICAN MOVEMENT OF THE 1970'S, HISTORY AND
IMPACT / Edited by Norma Broude and Mary D.Garrard
THE WOMEN / Hilton Als
MEMOIR OF A RACE TRAITOR / Mab Segrest
HENRY J. DARGER / John M.MacGregor
FAVE MOVIES
OUTTA THE BLUE
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THIS IS THE FABULOUS STAINS (starring Diane Lane)
OVER THE EDGE
CRUSH (not the Alicia Silverstone one this is from New Zealand, I think
it is amazing)
TIMES SQUARE
THE BOYS IN THE BAND
POISON
