Born in Flames Is the Pick of the Week

With right-wingers running amok and trying to silence everyone these days, filmmaker Lizzie Borden’s 1983 punk feminist cult classic Born in Flames couldn’t be re-released at a better time. Told in kinetic fragments consisting of television broadcasts, furious radio broadcasts, and protests all over New York City, a group of Black, lesbian, and working-class women get together and fight against oppression, sexism, homophobia, and racism in America in a post-future utopia, one that doesn’t feel too far off from where we are trapped in today.

Seeing it now (or at least multiple clips), the film looks and sounds like a charged call to action, which showcases marginalized people who are not going to take it anymore and who want to give voices to not just themselves, but others in perhaps the same situations that they’re in. It also seems like a film that is another prime example of the power and importance of female filmmaking, one that easily gets taken for granted.

The female-driven commentary (including Borden and cast members Adele Bertei, Hillary Hurst, Sheila McLaughlin, Pat Murphy, Marty Pottenger, and Jeanne Satterfield; and camerapeople DeeDee Halleck and Chris Hegedus) and supplements, such as a new intro by Borden, and Regrouping (1976), her directorial debut, an experimental documentary about a New York City women’s group, sound like they complement the film well. There are also essays by film scholar Yasmina Price and author So Mayer.

I love this because it’s an enterprise for women by women. And if you have the same admiration and interest in female-led cinema, then this release is definitely the one for you.

Other solid releases:

This is Spinal Tap (Criterion): A new reissue of Rob Reiner’s legendary 1984 rockumentary starring comedy icons Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer as members of a fledgling English band dealing with all the mishaps and creative differences that come with the rock lifestyle.

Cinderella Man (Universal): Ron Howard’s inspirational sports biopic starring Russell Crowe as famous athlete Jim Braddock, a light-heavyweight boxer forced into retirement but never really giving up his dream of being in the ring again.

Night of the Juggler (Kino): A subdued but still gritty New York action thriller starring James Brolin as a tough ex-cop on a relentless quest to find his kidnapped daughter taken by a twisted psychopath (Cliff Gorman). Read my review.

Vulcanizadora (Oscilloscope): A black comedy thriller about two friends who take a trip through a Michigan forest on a quest to perform an unsettling pact, which goes south pretty quickly.

Los Golfos (Radiance): Early Carlos Saura outing where a group of troubled Spanish youth try to survive in the suburbs of Madrid. Read Steve Geise’s review.