Film Series
Vengeance is Hers
“Yet another ingenious program… In its cross-genre, transglobal
approach, Vengeance is Hers creates a vast sorority of avenging
angels, an expansive sisterhood of the traveling rants, making it
possible for the retaliating sheroes of Pasolini's and Shindô's
lofty high-art projects to be comrades in arms with the lady
legends of grindhouse cinema.”
—Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice
From screwball proto-feminism to witchy gothic horror to cerebral auteurist classics, this series gathers some of cinema’s most unforgettable heroines and anti-heroines as they seize control and take no prisoners. Seen through the eyes of some of the world’s greatest directors, including female filmmakers like Chantal Akerman and Kathryn Bigelow, these films explore the full gamut of cinematic retribution in all its thrilling, unnerving dimensions.
Curated by Nellie Killian (BAMcinématek) and Thomas Beard (Light Industry).
Superstar opera diva Maria Callas is riveting as the avenging sorceress of Greek tragedy.
A mute rape victim wages war on Manhattan’s male population in Abel Ferrara’s classic.
Kathryn Bigelow helms this stylish police thriller starring Jamie Lee Curtis.
Akerman’s feminist landmark charts three days in the humdrum life of a widow.
A research scientist seeks revenge for her father’s death in Rivette’s enigmatic thriller.
Two murdered women return as angry cat spirits in this stylish ghost story.
Senegalese director Mambéty’s comedy about an aging woman who returns to her hometown.
Kaurismäki’s grim and grimly hilarious film about a painfully shy Helsinki factory worker.
The Hollywood literary adaptation par excellence, starring Olivia de Havilland.
Celebrate Valentine's Day with one of the greatest screwball comedies of all time.
Brian De Palma’s bloody Stephen King adaptation is one of the all-time great horror films.
Mario Bava explores perverse sexuality in this delirious adaptation of Gogol.
Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton star in this 80s comedy classic.
Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep star in this twisted comedy.
This controversial martial arts gem is exploitation cinema at its most lurid and luxurious.
Badass blaxploitation goddess Pam Grier stars as a shotgun-wielding avenging angel.
Stephanie Rothman’s subversive action flick about the female convicts of a prison island.