Rachel Garfield and the Legacy of Punk Film: the negation of idealised femininity
with an introduction and special thanks to aemi – an Irish organisation supporting moving image works by artists and experimental filmmakers.
“Punk allowed me to invent myself away from the normative femininity that I felt coerced into. It freed me from the expectations of my parents to have low professional expectations and to be married off at a young age. It allowed me a chance to have a radical rethink against the hegemonic voice of the society in which I grew up. I loved its energy and its anger. It allowed me to stop feeling judged but instead to be angry at those who passed judgement. It propelled me towards becoming an artist” – Rachel Garfield.
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. This screening was presented by aemi at the Irish Film Institute on May 2022; 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 (a radical thought indeed).
“I wanted to speak about people’s lives and hear about the way people navigated their lives through contradiction and difficulty [...]”
Garfield is an artist, she writes about art and began her artistic career studying fine art and painting. But Garfield soon discovered that film was a more appropriate medium for what she wanted to achieve; “I wanted to speak about people’s lives and hear about the way people navigated their lives through contradiction and difficulty. […] the time required in video made sense. I began interviewing people as the starting point of work. I had always been interested in portraiture and identity. Film was a great way of exploring identity.”
What makes these films Punk is not necessarily a conformity to the specificity of a genre, rather it is their attitude and subtle qualities of tone and mood. Punk offers female film-makers the freedom to explore the dual complexity and ordinariness of female-ness through a redefinition of femininity and female agency by challenging the status-quo. Garfield’s book explores the aesthetics of her own art, and that of the film makers that inspire her. The Punk film aesthetic is distinctive, yet difficult to define, it disrupts the more slow, long look associated with the genre of art film, instead the works are chaotic, heavily edited, fast moving and at times claustrophobic.; Garfield’s writing is an exploration of the relationship between her work, the work that she loves and the methodologies that she shared with fellow filmmakers – such as a DIY approach, heavily edited work, along with themes of relationships, lives and the everyday.
In addition, the prioritisation of the creation of art with the resources available, rather than seeking the funding prior to creation is something that Garfield feels passionate about; “I was never interested in the high production values that require substantial funding and support behind you, [I was] much more interested in the way artists form communities, and support each other.”
A sense of community within the context of film is something that is actively promoted by aemi here in Dublin. aemi is an Irish organisation that supports, and regularly exhibits, moving image works by artists and experimental filmmakers. Founded by its co-directors Alice Butler and Daniel Fitzpatrick in 2016, aemi is now supported by The Arts Council, and has had a significant impact on the development of artist film culture in Ireland by providing key supports to artists while keeping a strong focus on public engagement.
aemi works to make the cinema accessible to artists as an important site of exhibition to engage with overlooked histories of moving image practice and cultivate new forms of filmic expression
aemi regularly curates screening programmes for both in-person and online audiences. aemi works to make the cinema accessible to artists as an important site of exhibition to engage with overlooked histories of moving image practice and cultivate new forms of filmic expression. aemi has worked closely with Irish filmmakers such as Vivienne Dick, Jenny Brady, Pat Murphy and Tadhg O’Sullivan to develop curated programmes for the cinema. They have also hosted screenings with many influential international filmmakers including Mark Leckey, Soda_Jerk, Helen Cammock and John Smith. They always present screenings in person and invite discussion about the work with the artists after the programme.
aemi introduces audiences to both Irish and international work through regular screenings, which enhance the critical discourse in the area of film, specifically with the intention of showcasing work with variety and cultural significance. As mentioned, it was through aemi that Dublin was introduced to Garfield’s work as well as some of the films discussed in her recent book. This introduction opened up a discourse regarding the rejection and negation of traditional femininity of the 1970s and 1980s as expressed through the vehicle of Punk film, which should be revered as part of recent film history and as an important cultural moment in the evolution of female made film. As Garfield notes “Feminist discourse has also formed me so it was inevitably a part of the conceptualization of the book too. I was thinking about the ways in which the convergence of feminism and punk released me from the burden of a particular kind of femininity and allowed me to become an artist.”
Head to www.aemi.ie for a full list of aemi’s upcoming events across Ireland, and sign up to their monthly newsletter here
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