retrospective
Let Me Die a Woman
Let Me Die a Woman | Doris Wishman | US 1977 | 79 Min
| DCP
Metro
Tickets
Su,25.09.▸15:30
(S)exploitation pioneer Doris Wishman turns her attention to the subject of transsexuality in the only shockumentary of her career. Interviews with people affected and activists as well as a lecture by Dr. Leo Wollman, an authority on the subject at the time, are peppered with soft sex scenes, close-ups of genitals, and footage of a gender reassignment operation—which gave the movie its notoriety—in the style of sensationalist sex-ed films. Let Me Die a Woman is real and pseudo, educational and reactionary, reprehensible and bold and, at any rate, unforgettable.
Doris Wishman
(* 1912, † 2002) was a self-taught writer, director, and independent producer. Referred to by many as the “female Ed Wood,” she was one of very few women grindhouse-circle filmmakers during the 1960s and ’70s. Films like Nude on the Moon (1961, from her nudist period), Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965, sexploitation), her semi-documentary Let Me Die a Woman (1977), or her horror slasher A Night to Dismember (1983) brought her a cult following during the 1990s. This allowed her to make another three movies shortly before her death, including the neo-sexploitation Satan Was a Lady, which is not to be confused with Wishman’s 1975 hardcore pornographic film of the same title.
(* 1912, † 2002) was a self-taught writer, director, and independent producer. Referred to by many as the “female Ed Wood,” she was one of very few women grindhouse-circle filmmakers during the 1960s and ’70s. Films like Nude on the Moon (1961, from her nudist period), Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965, sexploitation), her semi-documentary Let Me Die a Woman (1977), or her horror slasher A Night to Dismember (1983) brought her a cult following during the 1990s. This allowed her to make another three movies shortly before her death, including the neo-sexploitation Satan Was a Lady, which is not to be confused with Wishman’s 1975 hardcore pornographic film of the same title.
Screenings
Metro
Su,25.09.▸15:30
