The do-it-yourself spirit of the punk rock movement found renewed expression amid fiercely independent, politically engaged DIY musicians, publishers, and filmmakers in the 1990s. The Future of Film is Female celebrates this ethos with Girls to the Front: Nineties and Now, its fifth series at MoMA, presenting work by women directors who were instrumental in the independent film movement of the 1990s, alongside work from new filmmakers whose attitude, ingenuity with limited resources, and ground-level storytelling carry on the DIY tradition.
This two-week series highlights foundational works from ’90s DIY filmmakers like Sarah Jacobson (I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore), Alex and Sylvia Sichel, Sara Driver, Bridgett M. Davis, and Rose Troche, influential, movement-defining artists whose films address misogyny, queerness, feminism, friendship, and racism with unmistakable rawness and sincerity. This legacy of making and screening movies on one’s own terms lives on in a new generation of filmmakers, whose work is also featured in the series: Alice Maio Mackay, Raven Jackson, and Alessandra Lacorraza carry the DIY torch, albeit in new styles and stories. Short films—a form that has always been central to independent filmmaking—will also be represented, with landmark examples from the ’90s and the present day by Jennifer Reeder, Marnie Weber, and more.
Organized by Caryn Coleman, guest curator, with Olivia Priedite, Film Program Coordinator, Department of Film.
The Future of Film is Female is a nonprofit organization based in New York with the mission to amplify the work of all women and nonbinary filmmakers through its Short Film Fund, commitment to exhibition screenings, and distribution.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black, with major funding from The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
