War-Zone

Activist-filmmaker Maggie Hadleigh-West got so tired of being stared at and harassed on the street that she decided to fight back and started filming as well as interrogating the men bugging her. Usually she held one camera while behind her a camerawoman held another, and she carried out this counteraggression in several American cities, meanwhile recounting the experiences of other women who didn’t have cameras at their disposal. To the filmmaker’s credit, she doesn’t always select the confrontations in which she comes off best and the men come off worst; just about everything she shows, however, is fascinating, revealing, and provocative. The encounters are also interspersed with some striking experimental and free-form interludes about city street life, and fragments of an autobiographical statement are subtly woven into the mix. Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton, Friday, May 21, 7:00 and 9:00; Saturday and Sunday, May 22 and 23, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00; and Monday through Thursday, May 24 through 27, 7:00 and 9:00; 773-281-4114. –Jonathan Rosenbaum

Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): film still. Read more