How had I never seen this before? This film, which took 5 years to film and produce on a $30,000 budget, follows a gritty, near future dystopia in which a socialist revolution has taken place. Except all sorts of people, Latinx, queers, low income folks, women and African Americans receive less in this system that enforces social cohesion by silencing any dissent as counterproductive to the promotion of the collective welfare. Central to the narrative is the Women's Army, a loose collective of women who act in individual cells and broadcast their message via two independent radio stations. Many of the central actors are both lesbians and African Americans. Throughout the film, groups of women, especially those most impacted by this "new socialism," which is complicit in rape and fires women from construction jobs so that men may have them, for instance, debate the merits of the movement and the the efficacy of their participation therein. Watching this film in 2020, I found this film to be profoundly moving, especially as one of these guerrilla stations was called Station 2016. We're past 2016. And yet, 37 years later, we're still having the same debates about privilege and the fulfillment of what an equal future entails. (Equal for whom?) Eventually, and despite discouragement from white party officials, the white, relatively privileged women at an official party move from dialoguing with the Women's Army to taking up their cause when an African American lesbian activist is murdered by the police. As someone very much invested in social justice movements, but equally alienated by aspects of complicity in some relatively well to do white progressive circles, this film is compelling as an object lesson in societal change that leave very many people behind. I'd recommend this film to anyone looking to reflect on social movements, or perhaps to learn more about differing views on women's rights by people who all agree that change needs to happen. The narrative structure leaves something to be desired, but the discussions from various perspectives about what does and doesn't effective manifestations of social change make this 1 hour, 20 minute delight very worthwhile.
Review of Born in Flames
