Author | Yeni Sleidi
Kathleen Hannah is sunbathing on her lawn and nestled in the grass is a small radio. She’s listening to a program about Le Tigre and becomes visibly uncomfortable when the commentator asks, “Why did Kathleen Hannah stop performing?” After abruptly quitting the band in 2005, she answered that question by declaring that she had run out of things to say. But in Sini Anderson’s biographical documentary “A Punk Singer,” she admits that she lied.
The film starts by taking you back to1986, the year that Kathleen moved to Olympia, Washington. At the time, Olympia was the epicenter of do-it-yourself activism, and while studying photography at the Evergreen State College, her interest in feminism solidified. She began to speak out against misogyny and rape by publishing zines and performing spoken word poetry. But after being told that no one was listening, she formed the band Bikini Kill, took her top off and started wailing out the songs that would later kick-start the Riot Grrrl movement.
Anderson’s documentary is engrossing and thorough. And although other films have already canvassed Bikini Kill, “The Punk Singer” is the first to unravel Kathleen. It uses archived footage of performances and interviews, photographs, and intimate home videos to chronicle the past 20 years of her life. And it steadily walks you through her numerous artistic and musical endeavors, bitter feuds with the press, friendships, and her relationship with Beastie Boy’s Adam Horvitz, who she married in 2006. Joan Jett, Carrie Brownstein, Kim Gordon, and other musicians and writers also make an appearance to discuss Kathleen’s role as a punk rock pioneer, and to applaud her ongoing efforts to push the feminist agenda.
In the film’s most candid and laudable moment, Kathleen confesses that being the unflinching face of female empowerment isn’t easy. She sits down in front of the camera, and after a long and contemplative pause, divulges the real reason why she stopped performing: an elusive illness had rendered her too weak to play. And to uphold the image of herself as an indestructible female force, she withheld the truth and instead claimed to be creatively tapped out.
But Kathleen still has a lot left to say.
After a five-year hiatus and a grueling recovery process, she’s performing again. And if you don’t want to listen, she suggests that you, “just go away.”
The film was released in New York City on Friday, November 29th. It will be rolling out all over the country through February 2014. Find a participating theater near you.
