stolen from the ol' Live Journal — 1 year ago
I very much enjoyed it. I hope a lot of people get to see it. It was about a rock & roll camp for girls of all sorts of ages up to 18.
The primary subjects of Girls Rock! are Laura, an articulate adopted Korean obsessed with death metal; Misty, who is emerging from a life of meth-addiction, homelessness and gang activity; Palace, a sweet-seeming 8-year-old with a heavy metal sneer, and Amelia, who’s writing a 14-song cycle about her dog Pippi. The film ultimately explores what happens to the girls as they are given a temporary reprieve from being sexualized, analyzed, and pressured to conform.
In the camp, the girls are guided by counselors from all sorts of roots and icons of the Riot Grrrl movement. Carrie form Sleater-Kinney, members of The Gossip, many others. The girls are also surrounded by images of strong female writers and performers. The girls are encouraged to pick their instruments and a style that appeals to them, form a band, and write a song. There aren’t any rules, and they encounter, pretty much, the same bullshit with each other that their adult counterparts on the radio do.
But that’s not the point of the gathering. Their songs matter, but they really don’t. The point is the process. The girls are taught to trust their own creative abilities. They’re taught to love themselves and to rely on their abilities to be strong and truly beautiful rather than obedient and polished. It’s very individual-centered. In addition to being taught how to scream and how to keep a rhythm, a self-defense course is as much a part of the programme as the band formation.
The filmmakers, in my opinion, did a really good job. They documented the girls’ interactions at the camp and relied just as heavily on what I found to be very thoughtful, sensitive interviews with the girls as with their parents and the counselors involved. I would recommend this film to anyone, because I think there are some key points even the most socially conscious people I know would need to see.
Of course, the theater was nearly empty (though there were more patrons than usual – yay tourists), and of course, Bill was the only male in the theater. I get so sick of everyone.
