I have always thought documentaries are out there to tell you what really happened and because they´re documentaries, they´d give you both sides of the story. So, I´d say, if you are someone infatuated by the persona of Kathleen Hanna, you should be making a documentary about someone else and leave the job to someone who isn´t. Unfortunately, what we have here is a biased movie that wants to glorify this person and leaves a poor documentary behind. It just touches on different subjects superficially and then leaves for the next one without explanation sometimes puportedly skipping the facts. A few examples why this movie just isn´t what it should be.
At some point Hanna mentions an abusive father as a reaction on something untrue written in the newspaper that was probably the aftermath of her writing "incest" on her chest. We get a short drift of her abusive father and that´s it. Instead, when the movie covered Hanna´s childhood, why not focus on the abuse in the family? It would have helped the viewer understand the events later on.
Further down the road it´s mentioned that Courtney Love punched Kathleen Hanna at Lollapalooza 1995. Now, as a viewer, I´d like to know why she was punched. Did she say something or do something to deserve the punch? Instead, the movie doesn´t ask that question: it only portrays Hanna as a victim who, a viewer would assume undeservedly, received a punch. Did the author not care enough to dig into this, or she just wanted to ameliorate the story leaving the details out? In days when information is at the fingertips, probably the latter.
In 1996 Bikini Kill toured Europe with Team Dresch (I believe for about half of the tour). I´d have expected to see Team Dresch members say a thing or two in the movie or even hear about this tour, but alas, nothing. No Team Dresch members are interviewed. Did they have nothing to say or did they have no praise for Kathleen Hanna?
Then we move to Le Tigre. The documentary tells us the story of the band starting right at the beginning, but skipping completely one of the founding members! She´s not even mentioned in the movie. Whoa! What kind of documentary is this??
And the list goes on and on.
On top of all that, I had the impression that the author wanted a 100% female movie which is fine by all means and I would have loved to see that, but no. She includes interviews with Ad Rock of Beastie Boys because he´s Kathleen Hanna´s husband, but completely ignores Billy Karren who was the guitar player for Bikini Kill for the whole time when band was active back in the 90s. Billy only gets the mention as the male member of the band and interviews are only with the female members. For a band that is screaming for equality of genders, I find this hypocritical.
I could go on and on, but the movie has so many flaws that this would become a book, not a review.
The two bits I loved about this movie was the fact it shows how punk shows and pits were testosterone dominated and explains how Bikini Kill stepped in to change that (albeit Fugazi were doing it for 3-4 years already by that point - no mention in the movie, unfortunately). And I loved the historical insight into the three waves of femminism, as they put things into the perspective.
As a documentary, this movie serves no real purpose except giving us some original footage from the 90s. Bummer.
At some point Hanna mentions an abusive father as a reaction on something untrue written in the newspaper that was probably the aftermath of her writing "incest" on her chest. We get a short drift of her abusive father and that´s it. Instead, when the movie covered Hanna´s childhood, why not focus on the abuse in the family? It would have helped the viewer understand the events later on.
Further down the road it´s mentioned that Courtney Love punched Kathleen Hanna at Lollapalooza 1995. Now, as a viewer, I´d like to know why she was punched. Did she say something or do something to deserve the punch? Instead, the movie doesn´t ask that question: it only portrays Hanna as a victim who, a viewer would assume undeservedly, received a punch. Did the author not care enough to dig into this, or she just wanted to ameliorate the story leaving the details out? In days when information is at the fingertips, probably the latter.
In 1996 Bikini Kill toured Europe with Team Dresch (I believe for about half of the tour). I´d have expected to see Team Dresch members say a thing or two in the movie or even hear about this tour, but alas, nothing. No Team Dresch members are interviewed. Did they have nothing to say or did they have no praise for Kathleen Hanna?
Then we move to Le Tigre. The documentary tells us the story of the band starting right at the beginning, but skipping completely one of the founding members! She´s not even mentioned in the movie. Whoa! What kind of documentary is this??
And the list goes on and on.
On top of all that, I had the impression that the author wanted a 100% female movie which is fine by all means and I would have loved to see that, but no. She includes interviews with Ad Rock of Beastie Boys because he´s Kathleen Hanna´s husband, but completely ignores Billy Karren who was the guitar player for Bikini Kill for the whole time when band was active back in the 90s. Billy only gets the mention as the male member of the band and interviews are only with the female members. For a band that is screaming for equality of genders, I find this hypocritical.
I could go on and on, but the movie has so many flaws that this would become a book, not a review.
The two bits I loved about this movie was the fact it shows how punk shows and pits were testosterone dominated and explains how Bikini Kill stepped in to change that (albeit Fugazi were doing it for 3-4 years already by that point - no mention in the movie, unfortunately). And I loved the historical insight into the three waves of femminism, as they put things into the perspective.
As a documentary, this movie serves no real purpose except giving us some original footage from the 90s. Bummer.