hi all, this is @jasminprix ready to watch Lizzie Borden’s BORN IN FLAMES — which was made in 1983 and yet has more interesting things to say about our present than a lot of more recent work (sorry <3)

let's HIT PLAY #VultureMovieClub

a shout out to @AnthologyFilm for the gorgeous restoration!

if anyone would like to sing-a-long to the film’s anthem (honestly very much a ~vibe~ these days) here are the lyrics to The Red Krayola’s “BORN IN FLAMES” #vulturemovieclub

We can all agree that when Honey from Phoenix Radio says they are fighting against “the system that names itself falsely” where “the rich get richer and the poor just wait on their dreams”

...that sounds a *little* familiar #vulturemovieclub

A New York Mayor failing his people during a time of crisis...... #vulturemovieclub

The feminist bicycle gangs taking it upon themselves to protect women from street harassment --> collective organizing works! #vulturemovieclub

Lizzie Borden’s first feature was Regrouping (1976), an experimental documentary about a women’s collective — another example of her skill in assembling and layering a controlled chaos of sound + image as a way to chronicle (real and speculative) feminist history

Around 15:00 is the montage sequence I mentioned in the piece -- seriously clever, quick, irreverent, captivating editing to bear testament to the immense scope of what gets called "women's labor" https://www.vulture.com/2021/02/the-still-burning-fire-of-lizzie-bordens-born-in-flames.html

let's talk about who plays Zella Wylie in the film #vulturemovieclub

FLORYNCE (FLO) KENNEDY, real-life militant activist and lawyer

Auntie Flo was known for for her sartorial flair, often wearing a leather cowboy hat, pink sunglasses and too many accessories to count + her work for civil rights and reproductive justice was infused with militant Black Feminism, spilling over between the streets and courtrooms

Kennedy represented the Black Panthers on a bombing charge, defending the estates of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker from predatory record companies and set up the Media Workshop in 1966 to organize against racism and sexism in journalism

Flo Kennedy also participated in the National Women’s Political Caucus, which nominated Shirley Chisholm (who in 1968 was the first Black woman elected to Congress) for president

BORN IN FLAMES has so many scenes of FBI agents conducting surveillance on Black revolutionaries!!! It *IS* possible for a fictional film to give us some bits of more history left out in the average textbook #vulturemovieclub

At this point I'm sure everyone has spotted the young Kathryn Bigelow (who plays one of the editors of the Socialist Youth Review) #vulturemovieclub

Borden met Bigelow while she was in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program #vulturemovieclub

bit of film trivia: “Everyone was collaborating in those days [...] Kathryn borrowed my car for her first short film, The Set-Up (1978)"

Borden (L) was introduced by Bigelow (R) to a group Art & Language, she says in an interview: "I was reading a lot of Marx and Emma Goldman and thinking about communism and anarchism"*

*(girl you can tell <3)

This is a great interview with Borden that gives a lot of insight into her process + politics https://walkerart.org/magazine/interview-lizzie-borden-born-in-flames

BORN IN FLAMES makes a really strong + key point about the importance of international solidarity when it comes to fighting for liberation in the scenes where Adelaide travels to the Western Sahara to meet other militant feminists and learn from them #vulturemovieclub

My kingdom for this t-shirt

Borden asked the leader of Red Krayola to write the song that plays throughout the film (often accompanying scenes of women's labor) and she loved the title so much she used it for the film -- which was initially going to be called "Les Guerilleres" #vulturemovieclub

BORN IN FLAMES is a very sharp study of the importance of media autonomy and communication strategies in organizing + a key conversation is when the editors decide to not publish a photo of Adelaide Norris's body after her political assassination #vulturemovieclub

Have we not seen time and again that the spectacle of Black people killed and brutalized by the state does nothing to change things?

Lots of fabulous music in this film (Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child,” The Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” Billy Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”)

and a very well-placed snippet of Stevie Wonder's "Black Man" #vulturemovieclub https://open.spotify.com/album/6YUCc2RiXcEKS9ibuZxjt0?highlight=spotify:track:6nGaPDMcXeY7YS3O8B8C6s

In the film, "Wages For Housework" is offered as a pacifying tactic to stop the Women's Army's revolutionary direct actions, however, the real history of that labor push is really interesting and was very significant #vulturemovieclub https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/wages-for-houseworks-radical-vision/

“We live in a fake socialist state, one which exists in name only...It denies the very basis of true socialism, which is constant struggle and change.” #vulturemovieclub

~permanent revolution~