The Punk Singer – A Film about Kathleen Hanna

The Punk Singer – A Film about Kathleen Hanna

Sini Anderson

US
2013
Documentary
80’
Focus

»In her kiss, I taste the revolution!
Rebel girl rebel girl
Rebel girl you are the queen of my world«
Bikini Kill

»Her critics wished she would just shut up, and her fans hoped she never would.« Sini Anderson Feminist activist Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of punk band Bikini Kill and dance-punk trio Le Tigre was known throughout the USA of the 1990s as THE voice of the Riot Grrrl movement, which took its name from the Riot Grrrl Zine published by the band members themselves. The film follows its main figure through her now 20-year career, showing never-before-seen footage onstage and backstage. Classic now are those concerts where she would encourage women in the audience to take the front seats and so avoid harassment from male concertgoers.
Hanna explains her motivation behind speaking political texts and later singing them, her influence on the name given to Nirvana’s first album, and her difficulties as a feminist icon with the press. Contemporaries such as Joan Jett, Kim Gordon and Adam Horowitz (husband and Beastie Boy) place her role and interaction within and outside the feminist movement …
When, in 2005, Kathleen Hanna suddenly disappeared from the public eye, many people wanted to know what had happened. She is now starting up again with her new band The Julie Ruin.

Presented by L-MAG.

Film programme Imaging an Image


Awards for ›Punk Singer – A Film about Kathleen Hanna‹
Audience Award, International Female Film Festival Malmö 2014 | Special Mention of the Jury, Biografilm Festival Bologna 2014

Director / Script

Sini Anderson

Cinematography

Jenie Jeddry, Moira Morel

Editing

Bo Mehrad, Jessica Hernandez

Music

Kathleen Hanna

Production

Opening Band Films, Tamra Davis, Gwen Bialic, Rachel Dengiz, Erin Owens, Alan Oxman

Contact

Autlook Filmsales

Sini Anderson

Sini Anderson worked for over ten years in the film industry as a producer, assistant director and music video director before she notched up her film debut with The Punk Singer. Born 1969 in Chicago, Ms Anderson has been curator and artistic director of the National Queer Arts Festival and co-director of the Queer Cultural Centre, San Francisco. She is currently working on her second documentary I Spit on Your Country: Sister Spit while developing her first feature film. Ms Anderson lives in both New York and San Francisco.


Films by Sini Anderson
All Those Girls, Jolie Holland 2011