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Grrrl Love and Revolution: Riot Grrrl NYC

A film by Abby Moser

US | 2011 | 42 minutes | Color | DVD | English | Order No. 121046

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SYNOPSIS

Fed up with the calcification of punk into a male-dominated, misogynistic and increasingly mainstream movement, the birth of Riot Grrrl inthe late 1980s brought together feminism and pop culture in an empowering, noisy union. The angry music of Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile became a creative outlet to confront issues too often silenced in the media: rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism and female empowerment. Riot Grrrl created a feminist subculture which made its members active, front and center participants in the alternative punk scene. Filmmaker Abby Moser was at the heart of the NYC Riot Grrrl movement, filming them between 1993 and 1996, creating an invaluable archive for students learning the history of feminism. She captured the excitement of the times, and the articulate self-awareness of its members. She also documents their frustration with a mainstream media which dismissed feminism as a hobby, and the group’s own difficulties respecting the race and class divisions amongst themselves. Interweaving contemporary interviews with archival footage, this documentary examines the role of Riot Grrrl in launching third-wave feminism, and changing the face of women in music for future generations.

PRESS

“Riot grrrl NYC was an activist group, a feminist group, a LGBT group, but above all it was a community, where female artists and musicians supported each other and created together. The documentary does a wonderful job of capturing this sense of community and the power it had in inciting change. I highly recommend that anyone interested in feminism and riot grrrl see this movie!”

Grrrl Beat Magazine

“Grrrl Love and Revolution is an essential document that offers a rare inside look at Riot Grrrl as it really was.”

Sara Marcus Author, Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • New Fest New York LGBT Film Festival
  • Los Angeles Underground Film Festival, Honorable Mention
  • Looking at Music 3.0 Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Abby Moser

Abby Moser spent most of the 1990s documenting and writing about the feminist punk movement Riot Grrrl. The film that came out of this footage and her own participation in the movement, "Grrrl Love and Revolution: Riot Grrrl NYC", premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in March 2011. She is currently producing a documentary about Hope House, a program that brings children and their dads who are in prison together through summer camps at prisons, video teleconferencing, and literacy projects. She has taught documentary filmmaking at the Catholic University of America, the College of Staten Island, the Educational Video Center, and the Downtown Community Television Center in New York City. She has a M.A. from New York University in Culture and Media Studies. She has a M.A. from New York University in Culture and Media Studies, and currently teaches at The Catholic University of America. (2/12)

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