Killing Time/Fannie's Film
US | 1979 | 15 minutes | BW | 16mm/DVD | Order No. 00646
SYNOPSIS
PRESS
“Stunning. A brutal, brilliant allegory for women and film.”
"Killing Time is an unforgettable ten-minute short plumbing the art of everyday horror. The nonchalant mood not only creates deadpan wit but also knowingly hints at a deeper truth: that the alienation of women of color from U.S. society had become surreally normalized."
"Very simply, one of the best short films that I’ve ever seen”
“...in the end, you are mezmerized by the film”
"What is marvelous about this film is that it makes clear that Fannie Drayton has got a life outside her job, and that she uses her skills to beautify her home and to maintain her financial independence, and that what she really loves is that other life and that independence." Valerie Smith
"Women Make Movies' re-release of Fronza Woods' films is an important milestone in documenting the historical contribution of African American women to the annals of independent filmmaking."
“With this fifteen-minute portrait, Woods isn’t interested in condescendingly canonizing its principal; rather, she makes the mundane facts of Drayton’s life indelible."
"...an extraordinary 15-minute documentary"
"Killing Time (1979) and Fannie's Film (1982) are among the best short films ever made"
"Quiet blasts from a late-heard past, Woods’s short films swell with knowing generosity and subtext, looking like two films from an alternative reality that cinema and history are still not fully opened up to."
SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS
- Silver Medal, The Festival of the Americas/The Houston International Film Festival
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- American Film Festival, New York City
- Créteil International Women's Film Festival
- Metrograph (NYC)
- BAMcinématek
- The Brooklyn Museum of Art
- Roxie Theater
- Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) London
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Fronza Woods was born, raised and educated in Detroit, spent most of her active professional years in Manhattan and is maturing, as creatively as possible, in the southwest of France. A writer-filmmaker in her own right, she has worked as camerawoman on numerous independent films, was assistant sound engineer on John Sayles' feature "The Brother from Another Planet", been a script reader for HBO, and taught basic filmmaking at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she also created and curated an outreach film program for the city’s black community. (03/19)
Subject Areas
