"Girls to the Front!" Lorna Irvine reviews the celebration of music icon Kathleen Hanna.
Once upon a time in the early nineties, long before Britney, Beyonce, Miley and Ri-Ri, Bikini Kill, along with Bratmobile, Huggy Bear, Die Cheerleader, Lois and Sleater Kinney, were part of a galvanizing feminist indie sub-culture termed 'Riot Grrrl', which grew through fanzines, word of mouth and meetings in the UK and USA.
Unlike said glossy pop icons of today, they actually had something constructive to say—standing up to rape, incest and everyday sexism and were Pro-Choice on abortion rights and sexual health during the ultra-conservative Bush administration. They made a conscious choice of saying, 'Girls to the front' at their gigs, in opposition to girls and women getting squashed and battered in the (usually male-dominated) mosh pits.
Sini Anderson's film focuses on one such cult figure and mouthpiece of the movement, the outspoken lead singer of Bikini Kill: Kathleen Hanna. In retrospect, she is like the Anti-Miley, with no record companies telling her what to do, say or wear. Often standing on stage with 'SLUT' ironically scrawled across her stomach, she spat out invective, her voice a fuck-you to the patriarchy.
Musically, BK were as influenced by Brit punk bands X-Ray Spex, The Slits and the Au Pairs as American bands like The Runaways (Joan Jett pops up speaking of her love for them, as she produced their closest thing to a hit, Rebel Girl). Other passions like the feminist writing of Gloria Steinem and agitprop art of Barbara Kreuger bled into the lyrical content.
This documentary, fan-funded and first screened at South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas last year, is no mere nostalgia piece, however. Amazing live footage of Bikini Kill and Hanna's subsequent bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin are put into historical context, building up a picture of a movement not limited by mainstream constraints.
What is most striking, however, is how affectionate this portrait of Hanna is. She comes across as a principled, neurotic, funny, intelligent and loveable woman who was crushed by lack of money and a system designed to see her fail...everything she was against.
The sweetest moments occur at home with her and husband Adam Horowitz, aka Ad- Rock from the Beastie Boys (of whom she says, “I thought this is bullshit- 'Girls to do my laundry?' as their song said... But ya can't help who you fall in love with!”). Horowitz himself says with a laugh, “I first knew I liked her when she did an interview on camera in a ski mask, refusing to play the press game. (At this stage, Hanna was tired of the press portraying her as a victim or creating misconceptions about the band.) I thought, 'what the fuck is THIS? This is so cool, I have to get to know her!’” They met in the late nineties and have been together ever since.
Sadly, in 2010, Hanna, was diagnosed with Lyme disease, after enduring five years of illness and misdiagnosis, but continues to record and play today while she still is able- the spirit and message of Riot Grrrl as potent as ever—still very much needed, now as then.
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