ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9605020011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Off the Clock
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON
"Whenever a woman puts herself up to be a feminist spokesperson," says filmmaker Lizzie Borden, "she usually ends up causing more controversy than anything else."
Borden, who is decidedly feminist, will be visiting Hollins College this weekend to screen three of her movies and to talk about them. Her first film, "Born in Flames," will be shown at 7:30 on Friday night. Made in 1983, it's a tale of feminist underground radio and an army of women who want to take over the media. This will be followed by her 1992 Hollywood effort "Love Crimes," which stars Sean Young as an Atlanta district attorney who tries to stop a suave con artist (played by Patrick Bergin) who impersonates a famous photographer to lure women to his apartment for erotic episodes.
The third film, showing at 8 on Saturday night, is "Working Girls," a frank look at the life of a prostitute working in a middle-class brothel. The movie premiered at Cannes in 1986 and won the dramatic prize at Sundance that same year.
The three films explore female sexuality, as well as female heroism, in an often anti-erotic, sometimes edgy way, Borden has said. She has some very enthusiastic supporters, among them Hollins film professor Klaus Phillips, who planned the events for this weekend and frequently teaches "Working Girls" in his Women in Film course.
Still, the controversies rage in every camp. Borden - whose name really is Susan Elizabeth Borden - has been labeled politically incorrect, separatist, and even anti-feminist.
"I think there's been an incredibly sad thing happening in feminist cinema," she said in a phone interview. "Certain aspects of the vocal feminists have been perceived by the younger feminist filmmakers and audience as too shrill and strident. A lot of younger women are disclaiming feminism. The new cliche is 'I'm not a feminist but ... I believe women should get paid the same as men,' or whatever."
Borden finds the issues are just as confusing in the movie theater. "I think there are parallel feminisms," she says. "It feels like a party position without an absolute party. And in film it tends to go to the lowest common denominator. I can't imagine a movie being made with an incredibly strong feminist message that isn't couched by history."
Borden points to the recent proliferation of movies based on the books of Jane Austen. "...Which is great," she says, "because it's an opportunity for a lot of wonderful female characters. But they're all sort of tempered by looking back at history. Emma Thompson seems like the ultimate strong feminist heroine, but she gets the man in the end anyway."
As an independent filmmaker, Borden's first film cost $40,000 to make. But financing still is hard to come by, she says, even these days with more non-mainstream films making it to the screen. "The climate is a lot more difficult than it seems," she said. "The stories these independent moviemakers have to tell would blow your mind about how difficult it was for them to get money at all. There are certain types of small-budget films that are constantly in demand, mostly 'white slacker' type things, youth-oriented. For women it's extremely difficult."
In fact, she says, after making a successful independent film there are often new problems for a director the next time they get behind the lens. "Once you go up a notch, like you're even on the $2.5-million-budget level, then the pressure's really on to have really big names attached to them," she says. "Casting becomes so important to get financing. There are certain filmmakers who have attained the very enviable position of being able to make a movie every year. It's like Spike Lee or Woody Allen, I mean only one out of three movies is really successful financially. But they're really lucky because they can make bad movies that don't kill their career. It's very rare to have women in that position. I mean, take a look! They're all boys!"
She feels that too often, the American way to make movies is to figure out what the audience wants and start from there. "That's really what half the producers in Hollywood think," she says. "They're anticipating what people want to see, which really discredits the audience. I think that by the time a script has passed through the executive roadblocks, by the time it's cast, it's not going to ruffle too many feathers. It's just a law of economics.
"In 'Love Crimes' there were two different companies involved that wanted two different kinds of movies," Borden said. "One wanted a genre movie and the other wanted a sort of European art movie. By the time I got to film, I wasn't able to make the kind of movie I wanted. But that sort of thing happens all the time out here."
With or without the controversy, Lizzie Borden tries to make films from her female perspective, inviting even male members of the audience to experience a story from the woman's point of view. She admits that the feminist aspects of her films might reflect a lot of the confusion surrounding feminism in the '90s.
"What's sad about it is that what we're getting in culture right now are just so many mixed messages," she says. "I know I'm susceptible. I can be strong, but I'm reading Allure magazine every month, too."
Friday night will feature the director's cut of "Love Crimes." All the films will be shown in Babcock Auditorium in the Dana Science Building on the Hollins campus. There is no admission and the screenings and discussions are open to the public.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Lizzie Borden will screen three of her films - "Born inby CNBFlames," "Love Crimes" and "Working Girls" - this weekend at Hollins
College.