Born in Flames (1983) with director Lizzie Borden

Free Event

"[An] unruly, unclassifiable film — perhaps the sole entry in the hybrid genre of radical-lesbian-feminist sci-fi vérité." -The Village Voice

Set in an alternate-reality, socialist democratic United States, Lizzie Borden’s speculative fictionBorn in Flamesfinds the country plagued by social injustice. This feminist classic is a low-budget, grassroots production, a reflection of a long-gone grungy yet vibrant downtown New York City. Made at the height of the Reagan years, it tackles sexism, racism, and homophobia in its intertwining narratives about two rival pirate radio stations run by women, a trio of female investigative reporters, and a government threatened by difference. Showing in a newly restored 35mm print. 

The event will be introduced by Lauren Herold, Ph.D. candidate in Screen Cultures, and will feature a post-film Q&A with Lizzie Borden and Nick Davis, Professor of English and Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with restoration funding from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation. Presented by the Block Museum and the Northwestern Women's Center. Part of the film series Women at the End of the World, inspired by Margaret Atwood’sThe Handmaid’s Tale, the novel selected for Northwestern’s yearly campus-wide One Book One