Born in Flames

Born in Flames

A blistering rallying cry issued loud, clear and unapologetically queer, Lizzie Borden's explosive postpunk provocation is a DIY fantasia of female rebellion set in America ten years after a revolution that supposedly transformed the country into a social-democratic utopia. In reality, racism, sexism and economic inequality are as virulent as ever, and a band of radicals - led by Black, lesbian and working-class women - join to fight back. Told through a furiously fractured, kinetically edited flurry of television news broadcasts, pirate radio transmissions, agitprop and protests shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York City, Born in Flames is a shock wave of feminist futurism that's both an essential document of its time and radically ahead of it.

This new special edition from The Criterion Collection includes a 2K digital restoration - preserved by Anthology Film Archives, with restoration funding from the Golden Globe Foundation and The Film Foundation, and supervised and approved by director Lizzie Borden; a new introduction by Borden; a new audio commentary featuring Borden along with cast members Adele Bertei, Hillary Hurst, Sheila McLaughlin, Pat Murphy, Marty Pottenger, Jeanne Satterfield and camerapeople DeeDee Halleck and Chris Hegedus; Regrouping Borden's 1976 directorial debut, an experimental documentary about a New York City women's group; plus essays by film scholar Yasmina Price and author So Mayer.