These three films worked together on me, alchemically, as a holy feminist trinity. They shifted my genetics.  I love them for their total conviction of site and for their drifting, doubting, insurgent protagonists whose very presence calls into question every social milieu they encounter.

Deborah Stratman

Vagabond*

Agnes Varda

France, FIC, 1985, 105’

A young woman's body is found frozen in a ditch. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death.

*This film is not on the festival program.

Tue, 11 JUL, 21:45 - Solar – Open Air Cinema

Wanda

Barbara Loden

USA, FIC, 1970, 102’

In grim, rust-belt Pennsylvania, Wanda is down and out. She works sporadically, has abandoned her husband, lost custody of her children, sleeps on her sister’s couch, drinks and smokes too much, drifts between dingy bars and motels, where she falls prey to a series of men – including a bank robber who ropes her into his next criminal scheme.

Wed, 12 JUL, 21:45 - Solar - Open Air Cinema

Born in Flames

Lizze Borden

USA, FIC, 1983, 80’

A revolutionary guerrilla film, “Born in Flames” creates a parallel reality in near-future, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” where diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled. In this cult film, information and communication technologies are tools for the perspective of another political reality.

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What does the voice conjure?  Who speaks, and who not?  What are voiceless forms of speech? A program of films about speaking: together, silently, in unison, in opposition, in friendship. In honor of sounding bodies.

Deborah Stratman

Fri, 14 JUL, 22:45 – Teatro Municipal de Vila do Conde Sala 2

Influential Shorts

Letzte Worte (Last Words)

Werner Herzog

Germany, DOC, 1968, 13´

“Last Words” tells the story of the last man to leave the abandoned island of Spinalonga, which had been used as a leper colony. The man refused to leave, and so was forcibly removed. He now lives in Crete, where he plays the Cretan lyra at nights in a bar, and refuses to speak.

Dubbing (Synchronisation)

Antje Ehmann & Harun Farocki

Germany, EXP, 2006, 3’

A soliloquy by Robert de Niro. The same image as always, the words in seven languages. Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki appropriate a famous fragment from the film “Taxi Driver”, by Martin Scorsese (1976) to rethink the language of cinema in an exhibition context.

Queen Mother Moore Speech at Greenhaven Prison (Excerpt)

People’s Communication Network

EUA . USA, DOC, 1973, 17’

Two years after the riots and deaths at Attica, New York, in 1971, a community day was organized at a federal prison in Connecticut. The event was cablecast in New York City. Seventy-five-year-old Queen Mother Moore speaks of her involvement with African-American education in Brooklyn and resistance to racism in the South.

Solidarity

Joyce Wieland

Canada, EXP DOC, 1973, 11’

A film on the Dare strike of the early 1970s. Hundreds of feet and legs, milling, marching, and picketing with the word “solidarity” superimposed on the screen. The soundtrack is an organizer's speech on the labour situation. “Solidarity” combines a political awareness, an aesthetic viewpoint and a sense of humour unique in Wieland's work.

Noon

Helena Solberg

Brasil, FIC, 1970, 11’

A disenchanted teenager dreams of students revolting against their teacher and destroying their classroom, set against the context of the Brazilian military dictatorship and Caetano Veloso’s rebellious song “É Proibido Proibir.”

Jane Brakhage

Barbara Hammer

USA, EXP DOC, 1974, 10’

“She was so much more complex than Stan's portrayal of her in 'Window Water Baby Moving' (1958) that I decided to make a documentary about her for my graduate project." — Barbara Hammer. A documentary on the pioneer woman, her wisdom, philosophy, and common sense: Jane Brakhage as herself is the viewpoint rather than Jane Brakhage, wife of the filmmaker, Stan Brakhage.

Lightning

Marlene & Paul Kos

USA, EXP, 1976, 2’

Filmed inside a car, “Lightning” focuses on observation of natural phenomena, presenting the obverse of the, "If a tree falls in the woods..." conundrum. Does observation change the course of events? Can you believe in things you don't see? In this experiment, the camera occupies a privileged position — showing the woman and what she sees, as well as what she cannot see.