Who’s Afraid of Kathy Acker?

Colour, BETA SP
Germany, Austria, 2008, 87 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

The very first biographical film about the legendary American feminist writer who rose out of the New York underground scene. The eccentric Kathy Acker (1947–1997) is presented via a number of archival recordings of her provocative public performances and raw, explicitly sexual scenes, and through the memories of her students, former lovers, friends and colleagues. From her beginnings as a wild punk rocker, the documentary follows her with similarly wild ingenuity and brutal candour, combining animation, graphics and reminiscences from her contemporaries. Extracts from her written work recall her thoughts on womanhood, desire and feminine sexuality. The film thus radiates the same savage and unbound punk energy as its heroine, while also compiling a rigorous portrait of an unforgettable woman and an equally unforgettable period of history. The film has been screened at the festival in Rotterdam, the Hamburger Dokwoche, the Toronto Hot Docs and the festival in Seattle.

About the director

Barbara Caspar (b. 1979, Graz, Austria) After a year of studying photography in London, Caspar studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Vienna between 1998 and 2002. At the same time she was also studying multimedia art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and painting and conceptual art at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. In 2003–2006 she completed her doctoral studies in Vienna and Paris, and in 2003 she also completed a one-year course of study in film with Michael Haneke in Vienna. In later years she lived and worked in Vienna and New York, and exhibited her paintings in Europe and the US. She has spent the last three years working on her debut, Who’s Afraid of Kathy Acker?