Born in Flames

1983, Lizzie Borden, USA, 90 min.

Introduced by artist Tuesday Smillie

The underground indie classic Born in Flames is set in a dystopian future America that has undergone a peaceful democratic socialist revolution, yet women and minorities still grapple for their rights. Shot as a collage of news reports, action scenes, and documentary sequences, the movie traces the ideologies and power struggles among different feminist groups. Will they take power through violence… or through television? Artist Tuesday Smillie, whose painting “The Seeds of a Natural Disorder” is in the Rubin’s exhibition Face of the Future, introduces the film.

About Cabaret Cinema:Face of the Future

Curated by Rubin Museum fellow and artist Chitra Ganesh, Cabaret Cinema takes its cue from the exhibition Face of the Future, in which emerging artists reimagine how the visual languages of science fiction and fantasy take shape and proliferate around the world through cinema. Each film will be introduced by an artist whose work expands and redefines the aesthetics of science fiction, explored in posters that can be viewed in the Art Lounge gallery just outside the theater.

Chitra Ganesh: Face of the Future is made possible by Rasika and Girish Reddy, Manoj and Rita Singh, Akhoury Foundation, and contributors to the 2018 Exhibitions Fund.

About the Introducer

Tuesday Smillie is a visual artist in New York. Her work has been featured in Artforum, New York, ARTNews, and VISION Magazine and exhibited at the New Museum, Rubin Museum, Artist Space Books, and Judson Church, with forthcoming solo exhibitions at the Rose Art Museum and Participant Inc. Smillie was inaugurated as the Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art’s first resident artist. She is an Art Matters grantee.