Wanda
(Barbara Loden, 1971, 103 min, DCP)
In her first and only feature film, Barbara Loden pulls off a remarkable writer-director-star turn in Wanda, a film about a directionless young mother in Pennsylvania coal country who wanders away from her young family and finds herself alone, drifting between dingy bars and motels, and callously treated by a series of men – including perhaps the least charismatic bank robber in movie history. Loden was herself born poor in Marion, North Carolina, and her film is a starkly verité look at the bleak options for working class women seeking to give patriarchy the slip in rural 70s America. A singular, downbeat masterpiece of American cinema, rarely seen but highly influential, this brand new 4k restoration is not to be missed.
“Refusing to portray its heroine as either victim or enlightened proto-feminist, the film is a rarity for its (or any other) era… Wanda bears the rawness of its creator’s memories of barely making it out herself.” -Melissa Anderson, Village Voice
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Precarious Living: Recent Rediscoveries in American Independent Film
