“Killing Time is, very simply, one of the best short films that I’ve ever seen.”
Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Fronza Woods’ film heroines are funny, clever, wise and instantly memorable. In the late 1970s, whilst living in New York, Woods made two brilliant short films: Killing Time and Fannie’s Film. Woods’ blend of portraiture and interviews draws us into the inner lives, dreams and desires of two New York women, one working class and one middle class; one a documentary, the other a fiction. As a result, her aesthetically dazzling films continue to daringly and beautifully challenge mainstream media’s ongoing stereotyping of women of colour.
We are delighted to be able to offer new restorations of Woods’ films for cinemas together with a special filmed interview with Woods by director Nadia Latif, conducted in her home in the southwest of France. Woods is hilarious and humane company, as specific and resistant to categories as the two portraits she made forty years before.
Either short is available for standalone bookings, as well as a 61 minute package of both shorts and the filmed interview.
Restoration preserved by the Academy Film Archive, courtesy of Women Make Movies
Films
Killing Time
1979, 10"
Killing Time is an offbeat, wryly comical look at the dilemma faced by a young woman (played by Woods herself, under the snappy name Sage Brush) who wants to kill herself but her quest is thwarted when her tight white jeans split and she decides to call it a day.
Fannie's Film
1982, 15"
Fannie’s Film portraits the day to day life of Fannie, a 65-year-old cleaning woman who works in a professional dancer’s exercise studio. Whilst performing her job, Fannie tells us in voiceover about her life, hopes, goals and feelings.
