“The Edge of Each Other’s Battles: The Vision of Audre Lorde” documents Audre Lorde’s social vision and the translation of that vision into a transnational conference which used her work, while celebrating her life. The film is a tribute to Audre Lorde’s legacy of politics and poetry. Primary footage is from the four-day Boston conference, “I Am Your Sisters: Forging Global Connections Across Differences,” where 1200 women and men and activist youth from 23 countries used Lorde’s work to address transcultural understandings of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Interviews with organizers/scholars Jacqui Alexander and Angela Bowen are intercut with conference footage, including performances, moving and passionate speeches, and controversies. This video is not a sentimental retrospective of Lorde, but an exhortation to activism that is lifelong and joyous.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) has been intrinsically important to the development of second wave U.S. feminism. Author of 15 books of poetry and prose, she was poet Laureate of New York State from 1991-1993. She consistently challenged racism, sexism, classism and homophobia, serving as a catalyst for change within and among social movements, in which she herself participated: Black Arts and Black Liberation, Women’s Liberation, and Lesbian and Gay Liberation. A staunch internationalist, she connected women across the U.S.A., the Caribbean, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. She died in 1992 after a courageous 14 year struggle against breast and liver cancer.
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Rent/BUY THE FILM
- https://vimeo.com/ondemand/edgeofeachothersbattles/427485829
- Educational Sales & Rentals, Order through Women Make Movies
AWARDS
- Best Documentary Production Award
XXII. Black International Cinema Berlin 2007 - Audience Award
Cinnafest, Cleveland, Ohio - Audience Award Best Documentary
Third Place
IMMAGINARIA
International Lesbian Film Festival, 11th Edition
Bologna (Italy) - Audience Award
Reelout Queer Film and Video Festival
Ontario Toronto, Canada - Best Documentary
Second Choice
San Francisco Black Lesbian & Gay Film Festival - Audience Best Documentary Award
Second Place
San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
My reasons for wanting to create this video include both to produce a tribute to Lorde’s contributions to the development of feminism, and to communicate some of the intense joy, pain, passion and creativity associated with the dynamic exchange of ideas that is part of the feminist experience. Making a video about Audre Lorde and the communities that she brings together provided me that opportunity. Read more
REVIEWS
“Filmmaker Jennifer Abod has captured a true icon of our community and through the interviews in the film, we get to bear witness to the charming, witty, insightful, passionate and deeply political Audre Lorde.”
University of Arizona Libraries
“After viewing Jennifer Abod’s film, I gained a new respect for Lorde and her work… I gained new hope for a feminist revolution…” April Dobbins in Sojourner “…a labor of love and a symbol of commitment to the production of feminist art.”
Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
“I’ve seen it twice with audiences of women and it blows me and everybody else away each time, for its moving, insightful, varied, and potentially world-changing content.”
Frieda Werden, WINGS: Women’s International News Gathering Service
“…This video is a treasure, in the sense of ‘national treasure,’ except I can’t think of anything less Audre, so let’s say ‘global treasure.’ It’s invaluable.”
Cynthia Rich, author
“The footage of Lorde in Abod’s film is superb…The depth of discussion in this film is intensely satisfying.”
University of Wisconsin, Feminist Collections
“”The Vision of Audre Lorde: The Edge of Each Other’s Battles” gave me essential look at the life and the message of a deeply influential literary activist. The film challenged me to think about the many layers of discrimination that exist both in the world, and within our own social movements. I was moved to tears, and to action.”
Tony Lo Presti, Policy Advocate,
Environmental Health Coalition, San Diego, CA
“Whether or not you’re a lesbian of color, there is no doubt that if you are politically engaged, this film will be fascinating and beneficial.”
Susan Forrest, Behavioral Health Services, Inc.
Read the entire review here
“…the film gives us, in its entirety, a vision of what the world might be if we were to talk about the truth of our lives and express without fear our commitment to freedom.”
Rima Vesely, A Globe of Witnesses
Read the entire review here
Review of the film reprinted from Educational Media Reviews Online, an online resource for video librarians around the country.
Susanne Boatright, Library, Blue River Community College
One of the Metropolitan Community Colleges, Kansas City, MO
Read the entire review here
Five phat peace signs to sister Filmmaker and Director, Jennifer Abod, for this outstanding cinematic contribution to Black lesbian history.
Ta’Shia Asanti
Read the entire review here
Doctoral Alumna Brings Vision and Spirit of Feminist Icon Audre Lorde to Video
Network Magazine
In the news
- U Film: Jennifer Abod’s movie focuses on rights
- Audre Lorde’s dreams and goals underscored by Long Beach filmmaker
- Doctoral Alumna Brings Vision and Spirit of Feminist Icon Audre Lorde to Video
- Same Audre, New Appeal
- Audre Lorde praises women
Past Screenings
- African Diaspora Film Festival, New York
- Arizona State University, Tucson
- Audre Lorde Project Collaborative Cultural Event, Atlanta, GA
- Audre Lorde Project Collaborative Cultural Event, Atlanta, GA
- Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival
- Black Women’s Art Festival, Philadelphia
- Burlington Women’s Resource Center, VT
- California State University, Long Beach, California
- Cinema Lumiere Bologna, Italy
- CINEMARGES festival of Bordeaux, France
- Cinnafest, Cleveland, Ohio
- Color of Violence Conference II, Chicago, IL
- Il valore della differenza, Bologna Italy (three day conference on Audre Lorde)
- IMMAGINARIA, International Lesbian Film Festival, Bologna, Italy – (Audience award in the category of best documentary)
- Laney Community Colleges, Oakland, CA
- Lesbian/Gay Film Festivals Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Dublin, and Croatia
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA,
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- National Oral History Conference, San Diego, CA
- National Oral History Conference, San Diego, CA
- National Women’s Music Festival, IN.
- National Women’s Studies Association Conference/Film Festival
- National Women’s Studies Association Conference
- New Orleans Lesbian/Gay Film Festival
- New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
- Oral History Association, Berkley, California
- Oregon State University, Corvallis
- Outfest, Los Angeles.
- Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) Queer Zagreb!
- Pittsburgh International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
- Radcliffe/Harvard Video/Film Series. Boston, MA
- Radcliffe/Harvard Video/Film Series. Boston, MA
- Reelout Queer Film and Video Festival. Ontario Toronto, Canada
- San Francisco Black Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
- San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
- Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
- The Film Center at Cinemacafe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Toronto Women’s Bookstore, Toronto Canada
- Toronto Women’s Bookstore, Toronto Canada
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst Africa in the Picture, Amsterdam
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 25th Anniversary
- University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
- University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
- University of West Florida. Pensacola, Florida
- Utah Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
- Women in the Director’s Chair, Chicago, IL.
- Women in the Director’s Chair, Chicago, IL
- Women’s Resource Center Celebration