1039 Town Bloody Hall

[zedz]

I find the film a fascinating time capsule curio, mostly because of how little coherence there is around the feminist discourse of the time. The Mailer Circus was hardly the best way to demonstrate coherence, but he's really just an oafish sideshow, and the real interest for me is how the four women are at ideological loggerheads with one another, even though there's a sense that they (Germaine Greer most of all) wish they could find more common ground. So far the extras on this have been great. Greer's latter-day perspective is especially valuable and I'm really enjoying the commentary with her and Hegedus so far. The panelist reunion is especially fascinating for how painful revisiting the debate seems to be for Jill Johnston, and the admission that she only attended the reunion out of personal loyalty to Pennebaker.

[hearthesilence]

Too late posting this, but Chris Hegedus and Dr. Mia Mask actually just wrapped up a live online discussion hosted by Town Hall. (Missed it myself but maybe it will be posted online.)

[knives]

Others have already said this better, but the film is most interesting for how incoherent it is. No one is really making a strong argument. Rather it’s a matter of lengthy bon mots which I suppose explains Mailer and Pennebaker being here. Only the American English lesbian seems to get that none of this matters and so her speech is the highlight of the film as a piece of engagement rather then just curiosity of the moment.

[Magic Hate Ball]

Town Beaver Hall

What a choice for the subtitles cap.