Lizzie Borden

Born Linda Elizabeth Borden to an upper-class family, she legally changed her name to Lizzie Borden after hearing about the famous 19th century axe murder case in which the main suspect had the same name. Lizzie Borden studied painting at Wellesley, and worked as a film critic in New York City while making short films in the '70s. After five years of production, she completed her first feature Born in Flames, in 1983, shot on an extremely low budget, with no script. Her next feature, Working Girls, was also shot in a kind of faux-documentary style, although with a more manageable budget. It positioned prostitution as a reasonable source of income for middle-class women, focusing on a lesbian photographer working in an upscale brothel. Borden has since worked on numerous films, television and video projects, including the big-budget erotic thriller Love Crimes and a segment in the anthology film Erotique.