Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore. 1996. USA. Written and directed by Sarah Jacobson. With Lisa Gerstein, Beth Ramona Allen. DCP courtesy American Genre Film Archive. 95 min.
Rarely seen and truly remarkable, Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore is a seminal film in 1990s independent filmmaking. The only feature film written and directed by the late Sarah Jacobson, the “Queen of Underground Cinema,” it’s the punk antidote to the popular teen comedies of the 1990s. In the underground punk scene of a small, suburban Minnesotan town, teenager Mary (Lisa Gerstein) navigates her first sexual experience and deals with the chaotic lives of her coworkers at the local movie theater. It’s a coming of age story of the era, influenced by music, zines, and underground cinema culture—and how those things beautifully converged in the 1990s.
Preceded by
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer. 1993. USA. Written and directed by Sarah Jacobson. With Kristin Calabrese. DCP courtesy American Genre Film Archive. 25 min.
The patriarchy gets what’s coming to it in Sarah Jacobson’s killer short film. Nineteen-year-old Mary (Kristin Calabrese) decides to do something about the sexist pigs she encounters by murdering them—and it turns out she’s pretty good at it. One victim for every year she’s been alive: the scummy catcallers, the condescending friend, the bad sex partner, and even her well-meaning “white straight male hating” partner—they all let her down and get the axe. Jacobson’s first film, I Was a Teenage Serial Killer was produced by George Kuchar and epitomizes lo-fi, independent feminist filmmaking; it embodies the awakening of the third wave of feminism and the vocalization of the distrust women feel around men.