Gendered Confrontations

1. Art Herstory
Hermine Fried | 22 min | 1974
In her brilliant video Art Herstory, [Fried] has restaged art history, putting herself in the model's role in numerous paintings. Time dissolves under her humorous assault one moment in the painting, then out of the canvas and into that period, then back in the studio.

2. Female Sensibility
Lynda Benglis | 13 min | 1973
As two heavily made-up women take turns directing each other and submitting to each other's kisses and caresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that the camera is their main point of focus. Read against feminist film theory of the "male gaze", the action becomes a highly charged statement of the sexual politics of viewing and role-playing; and, as such, is a crucial text in the development of early feminist video.

3. Ama L'Uomo Tuo (Always love your man)
Cara DeVito | excerpt 8 min | 1975
This carefully structured documentary is both a character study of DeVito's grandmother, Adeline LeJudas, and an incisive social critique of patriarchal society. Ama L'Uomo Tuo is based on the sharing of personal histories, a common practice of the early women's movement and consciousness-raising groups.

4. The Mom Tapes
Ilene Segalove | 28 min | 1974
Segalove takes her Mom as subject in these short pieces, recording her stories, her advice, and her daily routine. What results is a portrait of a contemporary mother-daughter relationship, touchingly devoid of drama and full of whimsical humor.

5. Primal Scenes
Linda Montano | 9 min | 1980
Over grainy, black and white images of a woman giving birth, Montano reads the story of a nun's sexual self-discovery recounting Sister Joan's growing awareness of her body's sensuousness and sexuality. Primal Scenes is an excellent example of women's erotica, focusing on a woman's experience of her body as both sexually powerful and deeply mysterious.

6. Nun and Deviant
Nancy Angelo | 20 min | 1976
A classic example of feminist performance videos of the 1970s, which often incorporated autobiography, expansion of self through personae, and assertions of a new identity for women. In Nun and Deviant the performers come to happier terms with their identities both as women and as artists.

7. Vital statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained
Martha Rosler | 39 min | 1977
Taking aim at the social standardization enforced on women's bodies, Rosler critiques the politics of "objective" or scientific evaluation that result in the depersonalization, and colonization of women.Throughout this tape, Rosler situates the female body as the site of an ideological struggle, a site of physically realized domination which degrades, demeans, and subjugates women.

moderated by: Martina Pachmanová