Not Sorry: Feminist Experimental Film from the 1970s to Today

Series Site

What is feminist experimental film? How do we define a work as feminist and what constitutes experimentation? This series explores these questions through four themed programs – Heritage, Vessels, Home, and Consumer – that comprise a survey of short works spanning from the 1970s to today, with the explicit intent of questioning the largely white male canon of experimental film while deliberately positioning different modes of experimentation within both international and contemporary terms. The series is inspired by the new book, “Film Feminisms: A Global Introduction,” co-written by Kristin Lené Hole and Dijana Jelača.

From under-recognized landmarks like L.A. Rebellion filmmaker Barbara McCullough’s WATER RITUAL #1: AN URBAN RITE OF PURIFICATION (1979), to contemporary works such as the hand-manipulated 16mm confessional film HER SILENT SEAMING (2014) from Turkish-born filmmaker Nazli Dinçel, and the documentation of a visceral performance from Greenlandic-Danish artist Pia Arke in ARTIC HYSTERIA (1999), the selections generate new conversations across generations, national borders, and formats.

This program is co-curated by Mia Ferm (Northwest Film Center and Cinema Project) and Kristin Lené Hole, professor in Film Studies at Portland State University, both of whom will be here in person. The co-author of “Film Feminisms: A Global Introduction,” Dijana Jelača, will be joining us as well.

“Not Sorry” is co-presented by Video Data Bank at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

—Anthology Film Archives