Lizzie Borden (director)

Lizzie Borden (born 1950[1][2] or 1958[3]) is an American filmmaker, and is best known for the 1983 film Born in Flames.[4][5][6][7]

For other people with the same name, see Lizzie Borden (disambiguation).

Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden in December 2016
Born
Linda Elizabeth Borden

Detroit, Michigan, United States[1]
OccupationFilm director
Years active1976–present

Early life

The daughter of a Detroit stockbroker, originally named Linda Elizabeth Borden, at the age of eleven she decided to take the name of the accused 1890s Massachusetts double murderer Lizzie Borden, and was inspired by the following children's rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her father forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her mother forty-one

It even resulted in an announcement to her parents that she was legally changing her name.[8] Borden says, "At the time, my name was the best rebellion I could make."[9]

Early career

Borden's career as a feminist filmmaker began when she majored in art at Wellesley College in Massachusetts before moving to New York.[10] She moved away from the more mainstream writing and art criticism (in part for Art Forum) and decided to become a painter.[9] However, after attending a retrospective of the films of Jean-Luc Godard, she was inspired to experiment with cinema and favored a "naive" approach to film production.[9][11]

Independent film career

Initially, her films were united by an "iconoclastic depiction of sex" and she controversially portrayed prostitution as an "economic choice" in her 1986 film Working Girls.[12][13] Her body of work also investigates race, class, power, capitalism, and the power money bestows—all from a feminist vantage point.[12]

In 1976 she made an experimental documentary film titled Regrouping which chronicled the fracturing of a women's collective. The film was a portrait of four women artists and incorporated avant-garde techniques borrowed from performance art including a meta-analysis of the role of film itself in the fracturing of the collective that the film portrayed. The film was shown along with Born in Flames at an Anthology Film Archives screening in 2016.[14]

Her next film finished in 1983, Born in Flames, named after a song written by a member of Art & Language, Mayo Thompson of the Red Krayola.[15] It was shot and edited over the course of five years and had a budget of $30,000. Set in New York, it explores the role media plays in culture. What began as a project about white feminist responses to an oppressive government evolved into a story about women of color, including lesbians, and white women of various classes mobilizing into collective action, and concerned the racial, class, and political conflicts in a future United States socialist democracy.[8][16] Borden's "naive" approach to film production can be seen in its gritty, pseudo-documentary style, which pieces together a "disjunctive collage of women's individual and collective work".[8] Additionally, she used nonprofessional actresses and actors. Born in Flames premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won several awards. It was named one of "The Most Important 50 Independent Films" by Filmmaker magazine and has been the subject of extensive feminist analysis, including that of Teresa de Lauretis.[17]

In February 2016, Anthology Film Archives hosted a week-long revival run of Born in Flames, premiering their new 35mm restoration funded by The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The restoration was part of a larger multi-year project, "Re-Visions: American Experimental Film 1975–1990" supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. To commemorate the re-release, The New Yorker remarked, "the free, ardent, spontaneous creativity of 'Born in Flames' emerges as an indispensable mode of radical change—one that many contemporary filmmakers with political intentions have yet to assimilate."[18][19]

Borden's second film, Working Girls, depicting the lives of sex workers, maintains some of the stylistic and thematic features of her debut, but is more mainstream in its approach. The film was inspired by some of the women who participated in the making of Born in Flames, who coincidentally supported themselves through prostitution.[8] Although Working Girls addresses the subject of prostitution in great detail, Borden prefers the film to be discussed as a narrative fiction film rather than as a documentary.[12] The film was intended to be a "back-stage" look at prostitution. In a New York Times review, Vincent Canby writes, "Working Girls, though a work of fiction, sounds as authentic as might a documentary about coal miners. " The film portrays prostitution as an often tedious, sometimes depressing, occasionally interesting or funny job. The main character, Molly, claims to have a degree from Yale and is a lesbian in her private life.

Borden wrote, directed, and produced the film and it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director's Fortnight. The film won Best Feature at the Sundance Film Festival and was sold and then distributed by Miramax Films.

Hollywood film career

Miramax then gave Borden a budget of $6 million and a script for Love Crimes, her first Hollywood film feature. It was intended as a thriller, but Borden envisioned it as centered more on a woman's genuine sexual feelings. It was originally scripted by Allan Moyle, but was rewritten by Laurie Frank, a female screenwriter specifically requested by Borden.[8] This was also her first film not based on an original script. It starred Sean Young and Patrick Bergin.

Although Borden found herself in the position to direct a mainstream production, her power over the film's content was disrupted by (as Borden puts it) "everyone else's psyches ... with their fetishes, and what they don't like".[20] Love Crimes was subjected to much studio interference and it fell victim to Hollywood's more politically correct protocols regarding sex in the 1990s, and as a result it lacked the taboo representations she was once able to project on screen.[12] Numerous scenes were removed and some never shot in the studio's attempts to present what they termed an "acceptable" vision of the lead's sexuality to a mass audience.[20] The studio took away much of Borden's control over the final product and even went so far as to cut out the original ending that Borden had shot, substituting its own. "I went to movie jail after I did this awful movie, Love Crimes. I should have taken my name off it, but I was bullied into not taking my name off it. There are things in it that I didn't shoot. It's just not my movie, really."[21]

The film was released to theaters and quickly tanked, and the film was removed after three weeks due to poor box office.

For its VHS release, Borden negotiated the restoration of several scenes originally cut from the theatrical release. As a result, two versions of the film were released in July 1992: the original theatrical version and a second, "unrated" version.[20] "The problems really came down to sex", Borden said. "My vision of what I wanted, of how I wanted to explore the character (played by Sean Young) and her sexual needs and desires just wasn't acceptable or accepted. The sadomasochistic element of the film as I envisioned it was too scary for the people writing the checks. And then I didn't get the final cut."The eventual VHS release saw the film's unrated version become a fast seller and remains a cult favorite and highly collectible item.[18] In a 2018 podcast, Borden says the "director's cut" was never really hers but a marketing ploy by Weinstein.[22]

After the film's release and critical failure in the box office it became very difficult for Borden to set up further projects. She ventured into television with mixed results, and worked with such cult stars as Mary Woronov, Alexis Arquette and Joe Dallesandro in a series of Propaganda Films created for Playboy TV (other directors in the series included Bernard Rose and Alexander Payne.) She subsequently directed episodes of Red Shoe Diaries, Alex Mack and other television productions, as well as directing local theater in Hollywood with the Grace Players, a theater troupe under the direction of Natalija Nogulich.

She cast future famous actor Bryan Cranston in the 1995 film Erotique; Borden (as one of the four directors involved in the four sex vignettes) noted, "Besides Louise Smith, he was the most game, daring actor I've ever worked with."

In 1999 Borden was able to pitch to investors and was in pre-production on a filmed version of August Strindberg's 1888 play Miss Julie when director Mike Figgis announced his own version in the trades and her bank financing collapsed.

In 2001 Borden flew to New York City for final script discussions with actress Susan Sarandon for her next film project, named Rialto. She and her partners arrived on the morning of 9/11, just in time to witness the World Trade Center collapse. Sarandon immediately joined the relief effort at Ground Zero and the project was put on hold.[12]

Since the mid-2000s Borden has been working as a script doctor in Los Angeles, writing scripts for other directors, including one about reggae singer Bob Marley's relationship with mobster Danny Sims (based on Rita Marley's autobiography No Woman No Cry); This project is now called "Rebels" and has been announced as part of slate of projects by Golden Island Filmworks to begin shooting in 2016.[23] She worked in television on some pilots for Fox Television, wrote a play about singer Nina Simone and is continuing to solicit financing for her independent projects.

Borden was once quoted as saying, "Born in Flames and Working Girls are the only two films I consider my own. The others – especially Love Crimes and Erotique – were so radically re-cut and interfered with by producers, they're not 'mine', in any sense of the word." Flashbacks by L.M. Kit Carson were added to "Love Crimes" and Borden was threatened against taking her name off the film. The producer of "Erotique" re-edited the film and laid on a music track, along with other changes. "I would like to make films the way I used to in New York, if that is possible. If I am able to make 'Rialto' in ten years – or twenty – I hope it will still be relevant. I don't need to make a lot of films, I just need to believe in the ones I make. I would prefer to remain silent in the sense of the Susan Sontag essay until I am able to make something I believe in. And the issues I believe in – social issues, feminist issues, radical issues – are difficult to finance, even independently."[20] Borden will be directing a film, "Rialto", is editing a book, Honey On A Razor, of stories by strippers and is collaborating on a series about strippers with Antonia Crane, author of the memoir, Spent.

In February, 2016, "Born In Flames" was shown at the Anthology Film Archives in a 35 mm print restored by the Anthology. This remastered print which has been screened at the Walker Art Center, the Toronto Film Festival and at the London Film Festival. Experiencing somewhat of a second life, "Born In Flames" was screened at the London Film Festival in 2017, the Edinburgh Film Festival, in Brussels, Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, the Seoul International Women's Film Festival and in many US cities, including Detroit, Rochester, San Francisco and New Orleans. Borden's first film, "Regrouping", which showed at the Anthology, also showed in February, 2016 and again, in July, at The Edinburgh Film Festival, where it first played, in Spain and in Brussels.[18]

Personal life

Borden has stated she is bisexual.[3]

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations
YearFilmAward / NominationResult
1983Born in FlamesBerlin International Film Festival Reader Jury of the "Zitty"
Créteil International Women's Film Festival Grand Prix		Won
Won
1987Working GirlsSundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize
Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize		Won
Nominated
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See also

References
  1. "Lizzie Borden". The New York Times. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  2. Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1995). Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 46. ISBN 9780313289729.
  3. Griffiths, Robin (2012). Gerstner, David A. (ed.). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture. Routledge. p. 95.
  4. "BORDEN, Lizzie", Film reference.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved November 4, 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 19, 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. Women Directors and Their Films, p. 59, at Google Books
  8. Lane, Christina. Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000.
  9. Mills, Nancy. "Cemeos: Lizzie Borden". Premiere, May 1991, 47–48, cited in Lane, Christina. Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000.
  10. Lizzie Borden on glbtq Archived October 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  11. Gustainis, Justin. "Borden, Lizzie." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, edited by Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, 4th ed., vol. 2: Directors, St. James Press, 2000, pp. 113-114.
  12. Redding, Judith M., and Victoria A. Brownworth. Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors. Seattle: Seal Press, 1997.
  13. Sherwood, Glynis (1987). "An Interview with Lizzie Borden". Kick it Over [Print] – via Interference Archive.
  14. "Regrouping, again: Lizzie Borden's "diabolical hour" comes around | Sight & Sound". British Film Institute. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  15. Baise, Greg. "Lizzie Borden talks about her scrappy, feminist magnum opus, 'Born in Flames'". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  16. Maslin, Janet (November 10, 1983). "Film: 'Born in Flames,' Radical Feminist Ideas. [Review]". New York Times. p. 1.
  17. https://programaddssrr.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/aesthetic-and-feminist-theory-rethinking-womens-cinema.pdf
  18. Brody, Richard (February 19, 2016). "The Political Science Fiction of 'Born in Flames'". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  19. "Fire Starter: Lizzie Borden's First Films Still Light Up (and Burn Down) the Left". Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  20. Lucia, Cynthia. "Redefining Female Sexuality in the Cinema: An Interview with Lizzie Borden". Cineaste 19.2–3 (February 1993): 6–10.
  21. "Harvey Weinstein threatened to destroy my career if I took my name off the film". Flavorwire. February 18, 2016.
  22. INTERVIEW: Lizzie Borden on Love Crimes, retrieved January 12, 2019
  23. Fuente, Anna Marie de la; Fuente, Anna Marie de la (September 14, 2015). "Toronto: Antigua Launches Film Financing Program". Variety. Retrieved January 12, 2019.

Further reading
  • Adams, Sam. "Kathleen Hanna on the Film that's Inspired Her for Decades." The Dissolve. December 3, 2013.
  • Baise, Greg. "Lizzie Borden talks about her scrappy, feminist magnum opus, 'Born in Flames'." Detroit Metro Times. March 1, 2017.
  • Brody, Richard. "The Political Science Fiction of 'Born in Flames'." The New Yorker. February 19, 2016.
  • Filetti, Jean S. "From Lizzie Borden to Lorena Bobbitt: Violent Women and Gendered Justice". Journal of American Studies. 35 (3): 471–484.
  • Fusco, Coco. 1986. "Working girls: an interview with Lizzie Bordon". Afterimage. 14: 6–7.
  • Jaehne, Karen. 1987. "Hooker". Film Comment. 23: 25–32.
  • MacDonald, Scott. 1989. "Interview with Lizzie Borden". Feminist Studies. 15: 327–45.
  • Nastasi, Alison. "'Choice is Paramount': Filmmaker Lizzie Borden on the Radical Feminism of 'Born in Flames'." Flavorwise. February 18, 2016.
  • Sussler, Betsy. "Lizzie Borden." BOMB Magazine. October 1, 1983.
  • Willse, Craig, and Dean Spade. "We are Born in Flames." Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory 23.1 (2013): 1–5.
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