[spectre] New podcast: American filmmaker and feminist activist Lizzie Borden talks about her films and their context

[Radio Web MACBA]

*New podcast: American filmmaker and activist Lizzie Borden
<http://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/lizzie-borden-main/capsula> *talks about her
first three films -"Re-grouping” (1976), "Born in Flames" (1983) i "Working
Girls" (1986)-, about inductive and deductive filmmaking, about filming
without a script, about the importance of editing, about style, about the
use of documentary strategies in fiction films, about alternative
distribution as a form of activism, about the lack of women in the film
world and about her notion of television as the future of audiovisual media.

Link: http://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/lizzie-borden-main/capsula

*The films by American filmmaker and activist Lizzie Borden* are like a
wake-up call urging us to think about the past, the present, and the future
of feminism through a particular understanding of the creative process and
cinematic language.

Following her dream of being a painter, Borden studied art and came into
contact with the American conceptual art scene in the early seventies. As a
result of clashes with the prevailing discourse on abstract expressionism
led by Clement Greenberg, she drifted away from painting, although she
maintained close links to the art world through her work as a writer for
'Artforum' and her friendships with some artists. Her discovery of Jean-Luc
Godard’s films and his way of mixing essay and narrative within a single
artistic expression was a turning point in Lizzie Borden’s career.

In 1976, armed with a 16 mm camera and surrounded by friends and
acquaintances – including Joan Jonas, Barbara Kruger and Kathryn Bigelow –
Borden shot her first film, entitled 'Regrouping'. Made in the context of
the second wave of feminism in the US, it reflects on the reason for being
and the living conditions of a group of women in a man’s world. The film,
which used an experimental and very beautiful cinematic language, with
audacious fades to white, abrupt editing, and an expressive, unconventional
use of sound, was literally kept in a closet for forty years, before
finally coming to light again recently. Borden’s second film, 'Born in
Flames' (1983) was framed within a more radical discourse. It reflects on
the situation of black non-heterosexual women and on the nature of activism
and violence as revolution. In an exercise in speculative fiction that
draws on documentary strategies, Borden explores dystopias in an
Afrofuturist setting. The film, which Borden shot in stages over four years
as she managed to raise the financing, has become a cult work of feminist
activism. In her third film, 'Working Girls', made in 1986, Borden turned
to the problems of race, class and stereotypes in relation to sex workers,
from a demystified female point of view totally removed from the voyeurism
and prejudices with which prostitution is usually portrayed.

SON[I]A talks to Lizzie Borden about inductive and deductive filmmaking,
about filming without a script, about the importance of editing, about
style, about the use of documentary strategies in fiction films, about
alternative distribution as a form of activism, about the lack of women in
the film world and about her notion of television as the future of
audiovisual media.

*Timeline*
*03:59* All I ever wanted to do is to become a painter
*05:01* Knowing too much about Art history destroyed painting for me
*05:29* The women whose work I admired so much was not as valued as the
titans I saw around me
*07:40* Radicalised by the second wave of feminism
*08:38* White middle class from Art School
*09:26* Discussions and meetings in the Art world in the 60s
*11:10* Godard: agitprop, essay and story
*13:00* 'Regrouping' is not a documentary
*16:50* 'Born in Flames': what is the nature of violence?
*17:55* 'Working Girls' is a question about labour
*20:20* A few reflections on the feminine gaze
*25:10* Women in Lizzie Borden's films
*29:10* Inductive and deductive film making
*34:30* After 'Working Girls'
*35:25* 'Born in Flames': still contemporary
*48:20* 'Born in Flames' on YouTube
*50:24* TV is the new medium and the series are the new novel
*53:10* I don't make documentaries


+ You may also be interested in this podcast -->* RADIOACTIVITY #3. Lizzie
Borden and "Born in Flames*"
<http://rwm.macba.cat/en/specials/lizzie-borden-pirate-radio/capsula>

Link: http://rwm.macba.cat/en/specials/lizzie-borden-pirate-radio/capsula
<http://rwm.macba.cat/en/specials/lizzie-borden-pirate-radio/capsula>

Pirate radio became one of the protagonists and main motifs of the
narrative thread of Lizzie Borden's 'Born in Flames'. In this short
excerpt, the cult and self-taught filmmaker Lizzie Borden shares the
various reasons that led her to take an interest in the phenomenon of
European free radio, and how it helped her to connect the various agendas
of this cult film.


Enjoy!
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