Born in Flames

Studio: The Criterion Collection

Oct 06, 2025 Web Exclusive By Cortlyn Kelly Photography by The Criterion Collection

Born in Flames (1983), reborn into the Criterion Collection, creeps back into our consciousness at a crucial time. Director and creative visionary Lizzie Borden’s experimental feminist feature film shows us the power of collective action and fearless commitment to a better society and a better culture. With this re-release, Borden provides a new introduction, reminding us of her everlasting authentic ethos.

Borden’s formal education as an art historian and painter and early career experience as a writer and art critic lay a rich, diverse foundation for the stories she seeks to tell. In Born in Flames, she continues the hyper-real capturing of women’s resistance and revolutionary aspirations that she explored in her debut, Regrouping (1976), also included in this release. Their pairing gives audiences the opportunity to discover that Borden has been true to her vision and craft from the very start.

Born in Flames slips right past the commonly coined “sophomore slump” that plagues artists. It’s electric, complicated and layered, unmuddied by individualistic, capitalistic gains. With the 2K restoration, the soundtrack and sound design are essential to the viewing experience. The movie’s theme song, of the same title by The Red Crayola, rejuvenates the story each time it decorates the air. We, too, are invigorated by the possibility of being a part of a phoenix-like movement.

“I’d rather die than spend another day in fascist prison,” cuts like a rusty switchblade. It’s almost unpalatable to know that both that line, as well as the character who says it, could very well exist in contemporary cinema with little to no confusion about the cultural context. The choppy editing keeps us on our toes; we only catch quick moments and must piece the puzzle together slowly. This dynamic dance between each feminist group, between their leaders and respective styles, encapsulates a semi-scripted reality while also pushing back against homogenized histories of the feminist movement of the 1970s.

Guerrilla-like cinematography perfectly pairs with the plot. Borden’s mixture of documentary and dramatic filmmaking creates a work that can and should be (and now is) immediately added to the cinematic canon. Close-ups of hands at work–cutting hair, sex work, reading, packing meat–juxtapose each side of the spectrum of female labor. The film also explores several elements that generate a movement. Radio shows, publications and in-person rendezvous; learning from our elders, resisting at all costs and cross-cultural strategies. The clash of class and race dissipated by the mutual understanding that there is a great goal, only reachable by reciprocation.

With Criterion’s commissioned excellent essays that accompany their releases, both Born in Flames and Regrouping are re-contextualized and re-examined by Yasmina Price and So Mayer, respectively. In this case, I find that each essay is essential in gaining a better grounding of Borden’s filmmaker style and storytelling capabilities, not due to unclear execution, but due to the intersectional interdependence of her message and her method. As Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another takes place as our latest American revolutionary film, it’s impeccable to see threads of Borden’s emphasis on the role of Black women in radical initiatives, weaving their way throughout film history to the present day.

(www.criterion.com/films/30707-born-in-flames)

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