NH: Toronto is a big town for film. In 1995 I attended an independent
film festival there where I saw an independent feminist sf short called
"Odds and Ends." Can't remember the director's name right now. It's a
total spoof too, about a galaxy of Black lesbians at war with Zombies. I
found it hilarious, down to the really cheesy special effects, but most
people didn't share my view.
And I don't know if "Daughters of the Dust" fits the definition of
speculative fiction, with its pre-born baby ghost girl running as fast as
she can to arrive in time to patch a rift between her parents, but that
one has a special place in my heart too, as does "Jumping Jack Flash." I
was too chicken to watch any of the Aliens movies, much to my chagrin.
But horror leaves me sleepless and terrified for days.
-nalo
On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, L. Timmel Duchamp wrote:
> Anybody seen "Cannibal Women of the Avocado Rainforest Jungle?"
> (At least I *think* that's the title-- but it could be "Amazon
> Women" or some other variant.) This is a film that was obviously
> made by feminists (academics, I feel certain) for feminists.
> It teems with a myriad details that anyone who isn't a feminist
> just don't get. (& there are plenty that would probably slide
> by feminists without at least graduate student experience.) I've
> watched videos of it numerous times, always with other people.
> A friend of mine who's a history professor shows it perhaps once
> a year at an all-women party of mixed students & faculty. Every
> time I see it I just howl-- & each viewing get more of the jokes.
> (Of course it also helps if you've read Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_
> or-- so I'm told-- seen _Lost Raiders of the Ark_ & _Apocalpyse
> Now_ --neither of which I've seen.) I usually don't like slapstick-type
> roll-in-the-aisles humor, but I love this movie. (Yeah, I'm the
> kind of person men are always telling to "lighten up.") I suppose
> its magic for me lies in its outrageous premise: that there are
> two rival groups of militant feminists occupying a huge tract
> of land ("jungle") in California that the CIA, the marines, &
> every kind of corporate & government sabatour is powerless to
> eliminate. (All the marines & CIA agents sent in get eaten--
> with either clam dip or guacamole, depending on which feminist
> faction captures them.) I must say that I've yet to meet a male
> "fellow traveller" who appreciates this film. The ones I've seen
> trying to watch it give up because they think it's boring & silly.
> (Just the way I feel about most movies that are "comedies.")
>
> Interesting to hear that I'm not the only person in existence
> who enjoyed _Until the End of the World._ I got so much pleasure
> from it that I saw it a second time less than a week after having
> seen it the first time. Everyone I know who's seen this movie
> thinks it's badly structured & boring. It does have an unwieldly
> shape-- but my understanding of the film sees that as inevitable.
> I didn't take any notes on my thoughts about it, but I do remember
> talking at length (to whomever would listen) about the insights
> I felt that film gave me into why the noir form cannot accommodate
> "role-reversed" female protagonists. The unwieldly shape of the
> film is the result of its opening with explicit cyber-type noir
> & later shifting into end-of-the-world sf. I once had some idea
> for why Wenders might have sutured two such incompatible forms
> together into one, but it escapes me at this late date. My favorite
> scene was the moment the EMP strikes, in the small airplane, when
> the world goes silent & there's just the small, spiraling shadow
> of the plane on the stark Australian outback below, & a beautiful
> silence & light all around it, as though the world were holding
> its breath...
>
> Timmi Duchamp
>
"Would you trade your funk for what's behind the third door?"
P-Funk, "Funkentelechy"
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