Born in Flames

Born in Flames is a comic fantasy of female rebellion set in America ten years after the Second American Revolution. Embedded within the radical feminist underground, it follows the activities of the Women’s Army, a powerful but loosely organised faction of female vigilantes and counterrevolutionaries, and two pirate radio programs trying to awaken the sisterhood and shake up the system. When the outspoken Black leader of the Women’s Army dies in police custody, a united front emerges to take direct action and potentially dangerous measures. Filmed in a vérité documentary style, Born in Flames remains, 40 years after its initial release, a dispatch from the future, a revolutionary commentary on the limits of liberalism as well as a bracing portrait of Reagan-era radicalism. Borden’s film is at once a dystopian science-fiction thriller and a socialist-feminist manifesto. Inspired by the Maoist agitprop of filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Born in Flames nevertheless pulses with a bold DIY energy all its own.  

1983, 85 min, USA, in English with Slovenian subtitles

after-film discussion:

Directed by: Lizzie Borden, Written by: Ed Bowes, Produced by: Lizzie Borden; Cinematography: Ed Bowes, Al Santana Michael, Oblowitz, Lizzie Borden; Music: Ibis; Distribution: First Run Feeatures. Organisation and production: City of Women, Kinodvor; Supported by: City of Women, Municipality of Ljubljana, U.S. Embassy in Slovenia