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The Match That Started My Fire Cathy Cook 19 minutes 1991 
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The telephone rings and the girl-talk begins: secrets emerge and confessions build. An exciting experimental
comedy in which the joy of sexual pleasure is discovered and experienced by women in their childhood and early
teens. Climbing a rope, descending a slide, being stung by insects...a host of women tell their hilarious
anecdotes of "the match that started their fire". The film is a visual montage of images that evoke a world of
1960s kitsch and nostalgia, with occasional darker hints of taboo and transgression.
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Lip Tracey Moffat 10 minutes 1999 
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It is Hollywood’s favorite role for black women: the maid. Sassy or sweet, snickeringly attentive or flippantly dismissive, the performers who play them steal every scene they are in, and Tracy Moffatt’s entertaining video collage reveals the narrow margin Hollywood has allowed black actresses to shine in. But shine they do. Giving lip is proven an art form in these scenes from 1930’s cinema to present-day movies featuring a remarkable roster of undervalued actresses and their more celebrated white costars. Moffatt and Hillberg’s rough, no-budget assembly effectively highlights with familiarity and humor the disturbing realization of how black characters and white characters still interact on screen, under Hollywood’s eternally backwards eye. |
"Tracy Moffatt's work delivers a bite that is almost imperceptible, until you
realize long after seeing it that she has somehow altered your way of thinking"
Robert Byrd,
Jerome Foundation.
"'Lip' is a clever to brilliant rapid montage of scenes from Hollywood movies... these off-hand moments are biting criticism of racial stereotypes and, simultaneously, demonstrate that these wise-cracking maids were nobody's fool, " Patricia Mellencamp, University of Wisconsin. |
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Coffee Colored Children Ngozi Onwurah 15 minutes 1988 
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This lyrical, unsettling film conveys the experience of children of mixed racial heritage. Suffering the aggression of racial harassment, a young girl and her brother attempt to wash their skin white with scouring powder. Starkly emotional and visually compelling, this semi-autobiographical testimony to the profound internalized effects of racism and the struggle for self-definition and pride is a powerful catalyst for discussion. |
“Raw and raptly personal, an elegiac exploration of Black childhood’s enforced pains,” John Lyttle, Philadelphia City Limits |
| L Is For The Way You Look Jean Carlomusto 24 minutes 1991 
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L Is For The Way You Look is a playful exploration of lesbian history and the women who have served as role models and objects of desire for young lesbians—from Martina Navratilova to Madonna, Simone de Beauvoir to Fran Lebowitz, Angela Davis to Dolly Parton, Patti Smith to Reno. The director also turns the camera on herself and her friends to discuss how media images of lesbians affect the construction of identity and how lesbians are written in and out of history. L Is For The Way You Look is an humorous and entertaining short video, grounded in a well-informed analysis of image politics. | L Is For The Way You Look is about activism and idols, but it will become famous for its beautifully edited detective-thriller middle section,” Village Voice |
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Chronic Jennifer Reeves 29 minutes 1993 
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Chronic uses intricate images and a powerful soundtrack to capture the delicate and rough texture of an emotionally complex young woman. | Jennifer Reeves was born in Colombo, Ceylon in 1971 and received her Bachelor of Arts in Film and Gender Studies from Bard College in 1993. Reeves has completed nine 16mm films which have been exhibited and awarded internationally. Reeves' most recent film Darling International (99, co-directed with M.M. Serra) has been presented at prestigious venues including the Berlin Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Sundance Film Festival where it received an honorable mention. Recently, Darling International and Reeves' We Are Going Home were featured in the Whitney Museum's "The Color of Ritual, The Color of Thought," an exhibition honoring avant-garde women filmmakers from 1930-2000. Recently, Reeves received grants from the Princess Grace Award and The Andrea Frank Foundation to produce her MFA thesis film When I'm not Thinking of You. |
| The Righteous Babes Pratibha Parmar 50 minutes 1998 
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In this accomplished documentary, acclaimed filmmaker Pratibha Parmar explores the intersection of feminism with popular music, focusing on the role of female recording artists in the 1990s and their influence on modern women. Parmar argues that, far from being dead, feminism has thrived and expanded its reach through the direct, aggressive, and revolutionary medium of rock music, and through the role models of performers like Madonna and Ani DiFranco. Intercuting performance footage with interviews, Parmar explores her thesis with some of the most outspoken female musicians, feminist theorists, and journalists of the UK and US, including Sinead O’Connor, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders), Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, Camille Paglia, and Gloria Steinem. With critical insight and candidness, this powerful and timely documentary demonstrates the vibrancy and relevance of feminism to women and young girls today. Essential viewing for feminists, post-feminists and anti-feminists alike. | “The righteous rage of The Righteous Babes tears the cobwebs off feminism: these fierce rock divas roll it out of the libraries and into packed concert halls. A sexy, invigorating must-see...” Patricia R. Zimmermann, Ithaca College |
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