Enjoy an evening full of illuminating and convention-breaking films, preceded by a selection of trailers from the 2022 Vermont International Film Festival!
Featuring rarely-seen silent films about feminist protest, anarchic slapstick mayhem, and evocative gender play. The women included are indeed very “nasty”—they organize labor strikes, bake (and weaponize) inedible desserts, explode out of the chimney, electrocute the police, and assume a rogues’ gallery of playful identities that joyously dismantle gender binaries and sexual norms.
These films have been restored and curated by UCLA Film Archives. The films are accompanied by specially-commissioned music scores.
Statement from the UCLA curators: “We launched this project in the midst of anti-feminist whiplash and rising global authoritarianism. We associate the ‘nasty women‘ rallying cry with the archives of early film feminism because of its descriptive accuracy as well as its uncanny relevance to the present-day proliferation of feminist film culture.” ~Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak & Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi