RECOMMENDED
Writer-director-shooter-editor Lynn Hershman Leeson draws from almost forty years of her own observation (and filming) of makers of feminist art to compile her personal secret history since the 1960s, the genial overview that is “!Women Art Revolution.” Less interested in critique than in celebration via talking heads, Leeson, whose films include at least three collaborations with Tilda Swinton—”Strange Culture,” “Conceiving Ada,” and “Teknolust”—covers a lot of ground. The roster of figures, which calls out more for the luxury of a Ken Burns-style extended treatment than a dense, sometimes baggy feature like this, includes Miranda July, Judy Chicago, B. Ruby Rich, Rachel Rosenthal, Dr. Amelia Jones, Martha Wilson, Faith Ringgold, Judith Baca, Miriam Schapiro, Hannah Wilke, Eleanor Antin, Nancy Spero and the Guerrilla Girls. (The battle over Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party” prompts a glimpse of politicians scoring points from obstinacy and ignorance.) The strong score is by Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag); it’s a plus in a documentary that draws from so many anachronistic visual formats. 83m. (Ray Pride)
“!Women Art Revolution” opens Friday at Siskel. A trailer is below.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” in words and images is in the works. Previews on Twitter (twitter.com/chighostsigns) as well as photography on Instagram: instagram.com/raypride.
Twitter: twitter.com/RayPride.
Related Stories
After the 1968 Riots: Restoring The Film Group's "American Revolution 2" Chicago Film Archives restores Chicago's post-1968 past with "American Revolution 2."- Riverrun Past: A Review Of Little Women Not strictly by the books.
- Poppa Art Julian Schnabel is a character, a big bruising, bustling, bursting figure of hubris and grandiosity, but also of texture and gesture and moment and incidental magic. Across the years and multiple interviews, Schnabel also has been one of the most effusive, apparently heartfelt subjects I’ve met. His personal charisma is a thing of weird beauty, as is well-documented almost everywhere…
