Three Lives – Kate Millett (1971, 70 minutes)
Doors 3:30pm
Tickets £5
It Takes A Million Years to be a Woman – Sisters of Jam (2011, 36 minutes)
Directed by feminist collective Sister of Jam It Takes A Million Years to be a Woman is a layered portrait of feminist activist, writer and artist Kate Millett at the feminist art colony she founded in 1978 in Poughkeepsie USA. The colony remained in operation until the beginning of the new millennium. It was founded out of a belief that a gender-specific community would provide an environment where women artists could work unencumbered by social stigma.
In 2010 Kate Millett invited S.O.J. to stay with her at The Farm and this became the starting point for their cultural portrait of this unique community. The Farm has been said to be the workshop of Kate’s mind. Many past residents from The Farm talk about Millett’s strong vision for the colony, creating a experimental community devoted to both the production and the discussion of art made by women. Sisters of Jam are intrigued by The Farm both as an artist colony, a feminist community and as a social experiment. But most of all because of its act of opposition. The film, made in collaboration with Fredrik Redelius and with music from Jenny Wilson, draws on archival material and interviews with Kate Millett and the farms residents.
Three Lives – Kate Millett (1971, 70 minutes)
Kate Millett’s Three Lives is a moving, proud, calm, aggressively self‐contained documentary feature, shot by an all‐female crew, about what it’s like to be the three very different women who talk about their lives, with feeling and sensitivity. The film portrays three women: Robin Mide, an artist; Lillian Shreve, a chemist; and Mallory Millet-Jones, Millett’s own sister. The camera is a quiet observer, letting the women, from three different paths and generations, tell their own stories without outside interference. Through these women’s personal revelations, a narrative of living under the patriarchy is revealed. The personal is political, indeed.
This screening is part of a programme of films presented by the exhibition Relating Narratives at The Horse Hospital exploring the way in which women look to other women – friends, sisters, mothers, writers, poets, – to construct an alternative register within which to situate themselves and mediate their relationship with the world. The programme presents films made by women about women.