Tonight's Program: "Sex & Revenge"

Introduction by Prof. Kimberly Lamm, Women's Studies, Duke University

Rape
(Joann Elam, 1975, 35 min, USA, English, B&W, 16mm)
Short but very sharp, JoAnn Elam's film RAPE has three victims discussing their emotional, physical and intellectual responses, then and now, highlighted and commented upon by a series of visual interpolations, sometimes metaphorical. In just 35 minutes the film manages to examine root causes, analyze attitudes, suggest alternatives, and firmly confront conflicts which make the usual finite conclusions so simplistic (Hellen Mackintosh, Timeout)

Foxy Brown
(Jack Hill, 1974, 94 min, USA, English, Color, DVD)
When her government-agent boyfriend is shot down by members of a drug syndicate, Foxy Brown (Pam Grier) seeks revenge. She links her boyfriend's murderers to a "modeling agency" run by Steve Elias (Peter Brown) and Miss Katherine (Kathryn Loder). Foxy decides to pose as a prostitute to infiltrate the company, and helps save a fellow black woman from a life of drugs and sexual exploitation.

Watch the Trailer 

In collaboration with the 2011-2012 Women's Studies Initiative, this series showcases a range of films that focus on issues at the center of 1970s feminisms, including race, class, labor, sexuality, and revolution. Highlighting a broad scope of aesthetic and thematic concerns, these diverse films present a complex vision of 70s feminisms. Together, these shorts, documentaries, experimental and feature films also reveal a shared interest in exploring the contours of women's subjectivity and potential for collective political action.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public!

Sponsors: Program in Women's Studies, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), Duke University Libraries, International Comparative Studies (ICS), Cultural Anthropology and Duke University Center for International Studies (DUCIS).