PUNK! 3

GRRRLS to the FRONT

GRRRLS to the FRONT pays tribute to three queer-feminist artists who began making video art and experimental films in the context of the US-American riot grrrl culture: Sadie Benning, Sarah Jacobson, and Jennifer Reeder. The name ‘riot grrrl’ is usually associated with punk bands such as Bikini Kill or Sleater Kinney, as well as with handmade, xeroxed zines such as Rebel Girl.

The videos and films of Benning, Jacobson, and Reeder share the politics and poetics of the riot grrrls. They challenge gender norms and stand up against sexualized violence by willfully employing defamiliarizing techniques that render the lived experience of adolescent girls palpable. GRRRLS to the FRONT is brimming with grotesque images of adultland, fake blood, and bright colours. It presents you with a self-proclaimed freak, a serial killer, a superheroine, and jolly disgustingness. It’s a pretty riot on the screen.

Curator: Mara Marxsen

Screened:
FRI 25/10, 19:00 REGINA

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A NEW YEAR

In a version of the “teenage diary,” Benning places her feelings of confusion and depression alongside grisly tales from tabloid headlines and brutal events in her neighbourhood. The difficulty of finding a positive identity for oneself in a world filled with violence is starkly revealed by Benning’s youthful but already despairing voice.

United States 1989 / 6:00 / Director: Sadie Benning

GIRL POWER

Set to music by Bikini Kill (an all-girl band from Washington), Girl Power is a raucous vision of what it means to be a radical girl in the 1990s. Benning relates her personal rebellion against school, family, and female stereotypes as a story of personal freedom, telling how she used to model like Matt Dillon and skip school to have adventures alone. Informed by the underground “riot grrrl” movement, this tape transforms the image politics of female youth, rejecting traditional passivity and polite compliance in favour of radical independence and a self-determined sexual identity.

United States 1992 / 15:00 / Director: Sadie Benning

I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER

Mary was a good girl until she decided to kill all the “sexist pigs”. She of course encounters many of which, and enjoys killing them.

United States 1993 / 25:00 / Director: Sarah Jacobson

WHITE TRASH GIRL – THE DEVIL INSIDE

This is the filmic creation of the legendary superheroine and first part of the series Clit-o-matic: The Adventures of White Trash Girl!. The White Trash Girl comes into our world and acquires superpowers, which she and her gang use to strike fear into the misogynistic male world.

United States 1995 / 8:00 / Director: Jennifer Reeder

BLOOD BELOW THE SKIN

Countdown to prom night is actually a countdown to irreversible change for three girls. While two of them fall in love with each other against all expectations, the third is forced to mother her own mother in the wake of her father’s disappearance.

United States 1995 / 32:00 / Director: Jennifer Reeder