# Born in Flames

Born in Flames is a 1983 American utopian/dystopian docufiction drama film directed, produced and co-written by radical intersectional feminist Lizzie Borden. The film explores racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism in an alternate socialist democratic United States. The title comes from the Red Krayola song "Born in Flames", which appears in the film and was written by Mayo Thompson, a member of the conceptual artists' group Art & Language.

## Plot

The film is set during the 10th anniversary of a peaceful socialist-democratic revolution, and follows two feminist groups in New York City, each voicing their concerns to the public by pirate radio. One group, led by an outspoken white lesbian, Isabel, operates Radio Ragazza. The other, led by a soft-spoken African-American, Honey, operates Phoenix Radio. The local community is stimulated into action after a world-traveling political activist, Adelaide Norris, is arrested upon arriving at a New York City airport, and suspiciously dies while in police custody. Simultaneously, a Women's Army led by Hilary Hurst and advised by Zella, an elderly theorist and mentor, is taking direct action in the city. Initially, both Honey and Isabel refuse to join. This group, along with Norris and the radio stations, are under investigation by FBI agents. Their progress is tracked by three editors for a socialist newspaper, whose persistent and opinionated journalism ultimately gets them fired.
The story involves several different women with different perspectives and attempts to show several examples of how sexism plays out on the streets and how it can be combatted. In one scene, two men attack a woman on the sidewalk, forcing her to the ground. Before they can cause further harm, dozens of women on bicycles and blowing whistles come to chase the men away and help the woman. The movie shows women – despite their various differences – organizing in meetings, making radio shows, creating art, wheatpasting, working various jobs, etc. The film portrays a world rife with violence against women, high female unemployment, and government oppression. The women in the film start to come together to make a bigger impact, by means that some in their society consider terrorism.
Ultimately, after both radio stations are suspiciously burned down, Honey and Isabel team up and broadcast Phoenix Ragazza Radio from stolen U-Haul vans. They also join the Women's Army, which sends a group of terrorists to interrupt a broadcast of the President of the United States, who is proposing that women be paid to do housework. The film ends with the women taking one more action, to bomb the antenna on top of the World Trade Center to hinder further destructive messages coming from the government and mainstream media.

## Cast

* Honey as Honey, host of Phoenix Radio
* Adele Bertei as Isabel, host of Radio Ragazza
* Jean Satterfield as Adelaide Norris
* Florynce Kennedy (credited as "Flo Kennedy") as Zella Wylie, theorist
* Becky Johnston as Becky Dunlop, newspaper editor
* Pat Murphy as Pat Crosby, newspaper editor
* Kathryn Bigelow as Kathy Larson, newspaper editor
* Hillary Hurst as the leader of the Women's Army
* Sheila McLaughlin as other leader
* Marty Pottenger as other leader/woman at site
* Bell Chevigny as Belle Gayle, a talk show host
* Joel Kovel as a talk show guest
* Ron Vawter as FBI Agent
* John Coplans as chief
* John Rudolph as TV newscaster
* Warner Schreiner as TV newscaster
* Valerie Smaldone as TV newscaster
* Hal Miller as detective
* Bill Tatum as Mayor Zubrinsky
* Mark Boone Junior as man in subway harassing woman
* Donna Allegra as woman at site
Born in Flames marks the first screen appearance of Eric Bogosian; he plays a technician at a TV station who is forced at gunpoint to run a videotape on the network feed. The movie also features a rare acting appearance by Academy Award-winning film director Kathryn Bigelow. Story contributor and cinematographer Ed Bowes portrays the editor of the socialist newspaper that ultimately fires the female journalists.

## Accolades

In 1983, the film won the Reader Jury prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival.

## Reception and legacy

Rotten Tomatoes reports an 88% approval rating for the film based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.
Variety said at the time of the film's release that it has "all the advantages and the disadvantages of a home movie", while The Guardian in 2021 described the film as a zero-budget underground film with all the hallmarks of guerilla filmmaking, writing that "Borden is filming on the real New York streets, also using real news footage of real demos and real police violence" and that the "anarchic spirit of agitprop pulses from this scrappy, smart, subversive film." (In an interview, Borden herself said, "I could only shoot once a month, when I had $200 ... I would gather everyone in this old Lincoln Continental I kept parked in front of my loft, go somewhere and shoot, and then I'd spend the interim just editing.")
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote in 1983: "Only those who already share Miss Borden's ideas are apt to find her film persuasive." Marjorie Baumgarten's 2001 review for The Austin Chronicle praised the film, saying: "Beautifully made, courageously edited, and swift-moving, this challenging, provocative film is a work that is both humanist and revolutionary." Frances Dickinson of Time Out London wrote that Borden "[handles] her story with audacity and make[s] even the driest argument crackle with humour, while the more poignant moments burn with a fierce white heat." TV Guide rated it 2/4 stars, saying: "This feminist film wins laurels for close attention to detail in a radical filmmaking effort." Greg Baise of the Metro Times called it "an early '80s landmark of indie and queer cinema". In 2022, the film was ranked joint 243rd in the Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll, tied for that ranking with 21 other films, including A Clockwork Orange, Annie Hall and Possession.