This week I’m highlighting the film Born in Flames with an excerpt and an interview with the creator Lizzie Borden. There’s no reason you should not own the DVD re-issue. Really.

“Born in Flames opens ten years after a social democratic revolution when America is starting to swing to the right again. Women, lesbians and minorities who were instrumental in the transformation of society are losing their jobs: a familiar last-hired /first-fired scenario which feeds their doubts about the practical impact of this ‘revolution.’

In this her first narrative feature film, editor and ex-art critic/painter Lizzie Borden creates a kaleidoscope portrait of women splintered into dozens of different political factions. On Phoenix Radio, Honey talks, offering politics based on her intuitions and background. On Radio Regazza, Adele Bertei raps for the people who will chase any excitement. And the pages of the Socialist Youth Review speak in measured bourgeois intellectual phrases, defending the regime and avoiding the deficiencies of social-democratic policies on women and other “out” groups.

As music by The Bloods, Ibis and Red Crayola pounds, events overtake these groups: the Women’s Army- the only faction without a media voice – lays plans for an open revolt…” (Jan Oxenberg & Lucy Winer – The Independent, November 1983)

Download: Full interview with Lizzie Borden from The Independent, November 1983