Dublin Art Life | Rachel Garfield and the Legacy of Punk Film: the negation of idealised femininity

Published date: 21 Jun 2022

DIY, DISINTEGRATION & HYSTERIA: Punk and Feminist Cinema of the 1970s & 80s – a programme presented last month by aemi, IFI and TBG+S and curated by artist Rachel Garfield – is the focus of a newly published article by Michelle Madden for Dublin Art Life.

Punk encompasses a myriad of mental images and musical associations, and thanks to Rachel Garfield’s recent book, “Experimental Filmmaking and Punk: Feminist Audio Visual Culture in the 1970s and 1980s” the reader’s concept of Punk will be opened up through the lesser known subculture of Feminist Punk…Overall, the films discussed in the book explore womanhood and more specifically, reject and negate the ideal of perfectionism and obedience that is thrust on women by society. Feminist Punk film provides women with the space to express their female-ness on their own terms; they can be imperfect, flawed and can embody contradictions, in essence they are allowed to be human…

Read the full article on Dublin Art Life here

A big thank you to Michelle Madden and Dublin Art Life for highlighting this recent stellar event as well as shining a light on aemi’s broader programming activities.


Tessa Hughes Freeland, still from Baby Doll, 5 mins, 1982, Digital