Borden’s radical ‘sci-fi documentary’, put together in a gritty, agitprop style, imagines an alternate universe USA, where black lesbian ‘terrorists’ fight for justice for women and the oppressed.
Review #3,005
Dir. Lizzie Borden
1983 | USA | Drama, Sci-Fi | 80min | 1.33:1 | English
Not rated – likely R21 for homosexual themes and explicit image of male genitals.
Cast: Honey, Adele Bertei, Jean Satterfield, Florynce Kennedy, Becky Johnston
Plot: In near-future New York, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organise a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.
Awards: Won Reader Jury of the “Zitty” (Berlinale)
Source: Anthology Film Archives
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Slightly Mature – Feminism; Equality; Injustice; Politics & Society; Resistance Groups
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: General Arthouse
Viewed: MUBI
Spoilers: No
Wow, this is quite something. A piece of fictional agitprop done in a gritty documentary style, Born in Flames does seem like it had been shot in an alternate universe where the United States is facing a new threat from within—black lesbian ‘terrorists’ hoping to fight for justice for women and the oppressed.
Even though a peaceful revolution made considerable inroads for women and minority rights ten years ago, an increasing number of aggrieved and woefully unemployed women are beginning to realise that the system is not in their favour.
And so, they must fight again, this time possibly with weapons and planned attacks. After all, most governments only listen to the language of violence when their status quo is under threat.
Lizzie Borden, who would follow up with Working Girls (1986), has taken radical indie filmmaking to the next political level with Born in Flames, which is essential viewing for those curious to see how form, content and context can align and yield a unique work best described as a ‘sci-fi documentary’.
“Every woman under attack has the right to defend herself.”
Seeing it today in light of Trump’s America, where there has been a conscious push to ward off the disenfranchised, be it immigrants facing deportation or women having little to no control over decisions about their bodies, Borden’s work isn’t just eerily prescient in its outlook but also portends a not-so-far future where the citizenry would take matters into their own hands, guerilla style or otherwise.
Class consciousness, minority and gender rights may be theorised until hard realities hit where it is most painful—the human soul.
Borden’s work details the pain points of grassroots activism with a democratic-socialist cause, as mainstream media drowns out perceived incendiary messages with their scheduled broadcast of lies and propaganda.
Born in Flames asks us not to settle for anything less than giving away the dignity of our souls, to continue the fight with fervour, not against each other, but against the system designed by the globalists and capitalists that entraps and exploits us to no end.
Grade: A-
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 