Born in Flames (1983)

Directed by Lizzie Borden | USA | 80 min The first feature film by iconoclastic artist Lizze Borden, Born in Flames was shot guerilla style on weekends in pre-gentrification New York over a period of five years. Set ten years after a socialist-democratic revolution in the United States, the film explores the ways that marginalized groups such as women, people of colour, and queer people continued to be targeted and suppressed, and the efforts of community-organized intersectional groups to fight back. The film follows two women-run pirate radio stations, a women’s revolutionary army, and a socialist newspaper and focuses on the role that communication and direct action play in combating the propaganda of the ruling authorities. With a punk soundtrack and rebel sensibility, Born in Flames reminds us just how long the fight for equality for these marginalized groups has been ongoing and how far it has yet to go. We dedicate this film to women, people of colour, and LGBTQ people in Alberta and around the world who continue to fight against governments that seek to minimize them, imprison them, and erase them. Written by Ben Rowe. Rated R for brief explicit sexual content. Part of our Cinema of Resistance Series.