Not Bad for a Girl

Not Bad for a Girl
Directed by	Lisa Rose Apramian
Produced by	Lisa Rose Apramian Kyle C. Kyle Kurt Cobain Courtney Love Tina Silvey
Starring	Lori Barbero Kat Bjelland Mia d'Bruzzi Jill Emery Eric Erlandson Kristen Pfaff Patty Schemel Lisa Fay Jennifer Finch Suzi Gardner Maureen Herman Joan Jett Courtney Love Bambi Nonymous Demetra Plakas Lesley Rankine Jula Bell Gilly Hanner Caroline Rue Donita Sparks Rachel Thoele Becky Wreck Theo Kogan Gina Volpe Sydney "Squid" Silver Becky Wreck Kate Schellenbach Erika Reinstein Anie Stanley[1]
Editing by	Kyle C. Kyle
Distributed by	Spitshine Productions and Quantum Enterprises
Release date(s)	1995
Running time	90 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English

Not Bad for a Girl is a rockumentary^[2] on women musicians of the 90's from the indie rock music genre grunge and Riot Grrrl and celebrates madness, creativity, and gender play. Tina Silvey was the executive producer. Silvey Co. producing MTV music videos for most of the well known indie grunge/indie bands including: Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Stone Temple Pilots, The Smashing Pumpkins, Liquid Jesus, Concrete Blonde, and The Replacements. Not Bad for a Girl was written, directed, produced and shot by rock phenomenologist feminist Lisa Rose Apramian, edited, shot and co-produced by Kyle C. Kyle, drummer for Venus and the Razorblades, the Motels, Wafflebutt, and the Wild Stares and co-produced by Courtney Love^[3] and Kurt Cobain. It has never been officially released to home video due to music licensing issues but it did find its way to the underground "bootleg" market in 1995 on VHS. A DVD, with a booklet, is available for purchase at the official website and a release date for the sequel book is in the works. Awarded Best Documentary at the New York Underground Film Festival 1996^[4], Nominated: Best Director, 19th Atlanta Film and Video Festival 1995.

The bands featured in the film were Hole, L7, Lunachicks, Babes in Toyland, Joan Jett, Calamity Jane, Bulimia Banquet, The Mudwimin, Silverfish, 7 Year Bitch, Bratmobile, Bikini Kill. Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain provided funding for the film^[5].

Cara-Beth Burnside is also featured on the beginning and end titles. At that time she was the best female ramp skate boarder and snow boarder in the world.

The documentary features in-depth interviews with every band member, including Donita Sparks and Jennifer Finch from L7, Courtney Love from Hole, Kat Bjelland from Babes in Toyland, and Becky Wreck from the Lunachicks along with clips from live performances from 1989-1994. It also features female rock communities including Riot Grrrl and the first annual Riot Grrl Convention, Rock 'n' Roll High School of Melbourne Australia, and the Feminist Majority Foundation sponsored "Rock for Choice" benefits with L7/ Joan Jett. According to press releases, the film explores themes such as the musicians' relationship to creativity and music, the negotiation of gender identity and gender performance (feminist term coined by Judith Butler) through rock, subversion of stereotypes and gendered expectations through stage play performances and stylization of the body, and the processes of healing and reclaiming through musical expressions.

The sequel Not Bad for a Girl book contains images, anecdotes, reviews, interviews from many more bands unable to fit into the original including Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Strangefruit, 7 Year Bitch, Tribe 8, Dickless, Girl in a Coma and rock musicians in France, Japan, Brazil, Italy and the Middle East.

Screenings

The film was screened at film festivals, including the following:

First Annual Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, Directors Guild of America and Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles, CA, April, 1995

22nd Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, OH, May 1995

19th Atlanta Film and Video Festival, Nominated: Best Director, Atlanta GA, June 1995

Le Nouveau Festival, now called Festival du Nouveau Cinema, International Cinema Video, Montreal, Quebec, CA June 1995

44th Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia, June 1995 42nd Sydney Film Festival, Sydney, Australia, June 1995

5th Jump Cut International Film Festival, Perth, Australia, July 1995

Festival Internacional de Cinema, Lisboa, Portugal, Aug-September 1995

Hamburg International Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany September 1995

31st Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago, Il, October 1995

Musik-Film Fest: International Film Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 1995

Sinking Creek Film Festival (Nashville Film Festival) November 1995

Third Annual New York Underground Film Festival, New York Film Academy, Winner: Best Documentary Feature, March 1996

18th Créteil International Women's Film Festival: Films des Femmes, Créteil, France, March 1996

21st Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin, Germany, March 1996

Reel Music Film Festival, Northwest Film Center, Portland, OR April 1996

4th Annual Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema, Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA April/May 1996

One Reel Film Festival, Bumbershoot, Seattle WA, August 1996

Underground Film Festival, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI, November 1996

Third Sheffield International Documentary Festival, Sheffield, UK 1996

German Film Institute Festival, Berlin, Germany, January 1997

20th Anniversary International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Gay Pride Week, San Francisco, CA June 1997

In addition to these festivals, it was also screened at the following universities, museums and conferences:

Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Women in Film Series, Tribute to Ginger Rogers, Buffalo, NY, Winter 1993 (screened as a work-in-progress)

University of Minnesota Film Society, University Film Center, Fall 1994

Boston University, Film Dept, Boston, MA, Fall 1995

Portland Art Museum, Rock Documentaries, Portland, OR, Winter 1996

21st Annual Feminist Psychology Conference, Association for Women in Psychology, Oregon, Winter 1996

Bowling Green State University, Women’s Studies, Bowling Green, OH, February 1996

Washington State University, American Studies, “American Movement Cultures: Boundaries, Bodies, Borders,” Pullman, WA, Spring 1996

University of Southern California, Women’s Studies, Los Angeles, CA, Spring 1996

University of Southern California, Dept of Communication: Popular Culture, Los Angeles, CA, Spring 1996

Madison University, Women’s Studies, Gulfport, MS, Spring 1996

University of Washington, Women’s Studies, Seattle, WA, 1997

Harvard University, Women’s Studies, Cambridge, MA, November 1997

Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, February 1999

Its art house and theatrical screenings include:

ED VIC MOVIE HOUSE, San Francisco, CA, August, 1996

FILMHOUSE, Edinburgh, Scotland, May 1996

DEUTSCHE INSTITUTE FUR FILMKIND, Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 1996

NUART THEATER, Los Angeles, CA, October 18–24, 1996

CINEMA DU PARC, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, November 1–14, 1996

CINEMA VILLAGE, New York, NY, November 22–29, 1996

NEIGHBORHOOD FILM SOCIETY, Philadelphia, PA, December 11–13, 1996

WINNIPEG FILM GROUP, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, December 11–14, 1996

CINEMATEQUE, Cleveland, OH, January 18–19, 1997

BRATTLE THEATER, Cambridge, MA, February 4, 1997

CINEFEST FILM THEATRE, Cambridge, MA, February 18–19, 1997

BRATTLE THEATRE, Cambridge, MA Return Engagement, March 11, 1997

ROXIE THEATER, San Francisco, CA, April 1–3, 1997

LARK THEATER, Larkspur, CA, April 4–5, 1997

WORMWOOD’S THEATRE, Halifax, NS, Canada, April 11–14, 1997

ROXIE THEATER, San Francisco, CA Return Engagement, April 18–25. 1997

References

1. ^ "Not Bad for a Girl" film.com
2. ^ * http://www.fastnbulbous.com/movies.htm Music Movies 'n' Rockumentaries
3. ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9802E2DA163DF931A15752C1A960958260
4. ^ Internet Movie Database
5. ^ NYUFF.com

External links

• Official site
• Not Bad for a Girl at the Internet Movie Database
• Not Bad For A Girl trailer on YouTube
• http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808741002/cast
• http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/134665/Not-Bad-for-a-Girl/overview
• http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:134665
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/04/01/DD29245.DTL
• http://www.filmreference.com/film/58/Courtney-Love.html
• http://www.citypaper.net/articles/120596/article025.shtml