A Man's Woman

1988, 52 min, color, sound

Kipnis has constructed a video essay that asserts an effective social critique through pseudo-documentary and narrative devices. Clovis Kingsley, powerful, pro-family, anti-feminist ideologue, author of The Power of Total Submission — and a woman who has traveled the country insisting that a woman's place is in the home — has been assassinated. Connie Yu, TV reporter, is assigned to uncover the story of Kingsley's life, which is reconstructed in flashbacks and interviews by those who knew her. A contradictory account of Kingsley's life and ideology emerges — a precis of the formation of political identity, the genealogy of feminism, the fractured logic of anti-feminism and the strategies of the disempowered.

Written/Produced/Directed by: Laura Kipnis. With: Petrea Burchard, Lisa Tejaro. Associate Producer: Colin MacCabe. Director of Photography: Dori Gordon. Lighting: Demetrius Bonin. Sound: Bill Jenkins. Editor: Cyndi Moran. Music: Steve Rodby, Tom Radtke, Fred Simon. In association with Channel 4 Television, London.