OVID.tv Presents BORN IN FLAMES Film Review – A Portrait of Activism

Set to female post-punk rock music, Liz Borden’s Born in Flames is more than a fictional documentary film about intersectional feminism; it is a portrait of activism in 1980s New York. The grainy homemade film follows Isabel and Honey, the leaders of two outspoken feminist groups, who operate illicit radio shows to organize riots. The groups focus on community-based action, like the bicycle ambush, and face backlash from the media.

Women Retaliate in OVID.tv’s Born in Flames

A series of shots demonstrates womens’ participation in manual labor: Hands scrub dishes. Hands fill out office paperwork. Hands feed a baby. Hands bag groceries, hands cut hair, hands wrap chicken at a packaging plant. A woman working in construction is handed a pink slip indicating that she has been fired. She asks her employer why none of the men lost their jobs, and he has no reply.

“We have a right to violence. All oppressed people have the right to violence.”

The labor riots that ensue are uplifting and radical. We feel like we are protesting with the group as women march and chant, passing in front of and behind the camera, wearing pins and hardhats, holding megaphones and homemade signs. The scene blisters with palpable rage. These violent sequences are intercut with intimate moments of reflection between small circles of women, including Honey and Isabel, who sit, talk, smoke, organize, argue, and yell. The women question how to unify when people have different approaches working toward a similar cause.

“One lion or five hundred mice?”

In this writer’s opinion, the film makes up for what it lacks in technical aspects and structure with a refreshingly nuanced view of intersectional feminism.

Born in Flames is recommended to those who enjoy independent, experimental filmmaking and radical politics.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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CREATIVE TEAM:

Directed by Lizzie Borden

CAST:

Honey
Adele Bertaei
Jeanne Satterfield
Flo Kennedy
Ron Vawter
Eric Bogosian
To watch the film, visit the OVID.tv page for Born in Flames.

Images courtesy of OVID.tv

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