Feature Video 75:00 Midwest Premiere

“She felt an excitement she had never experienced before when men were so attentive and insistent and expressed such interest in her, but having heard some of the other girls talk about their dates, she was afraid of what might happen to her if she were alone in the motel room with a strange man. Even though she often thought of how lonely she was and how much she wanted somebody to make love to her, each time one of the customers tried to persuade her to give him a date, she became speechless with fright and avoided them as much as possible. She wondered if she would ever lose her fear of men. “­ Erskine Caldwell, Certain Women (1957)

Video artist Bobby Abate and punk feminist filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh’s collaborate to create this sordid melodrama loosely adapted from populist Southern genre writer Erskine Caldwel’s novel and shot on a multitude of video formats.

Hilda, Louellen, Clementine and Nannette are a certain kind of woman, searching for love and acceptance in a hopelessly old-fashioned town filled with residents–good, bad and indifferent. Their stories, like their lives, intertwine, each woman reflecting an aspect of the other. These women must come to terms with and overcome many obstacles in a town fueled by ignorance, wickedness, and vicious rumors. Exaggerating the proto-feminist ideas found in Caldwell’s story Abate and Ahwesh create a richly textured work filled with satiric humor and lyricism.

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