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Screen/Society--Precarious Living--"Wanda" (1970) New 4K DCP Restoration

Still from WANDA by Barbara Loden
Thursday, September 20, 2018
7:00 pm - 8:45 pm
Introduced by curator Jason Sudak (AMI)
Precarious Living: Rediscoveries in American Independent Film

Film Screening:

"Wanda" (Barbara Loden, 1970, 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.

Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/275159804

1971 New York Times profile of Barabara Loden:
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/11/archives/barbara-loden-speaks-of-the-world-of-wanda.html

Precarious Living film series home page:
https://ami.duke.edu/screensociety/precarious-living-series

Contact: Hank Okazaki