| Rise Above: The Tribe 8 Documentary | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Tracy Flannigan |
Release dates |
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Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Rise Above: The Tribe 8 Documentary is a feature film about the all women queercore punk band Tribe 8 directed and produced by Tracy Flannigan.
The film chronicles live performances, candid moments of their lives at work and on the road, and the controversy at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, an all women's music festival, that landed them in a quagmire of protest and praise from a fiercely divided crowd. It also captures the truly funny and warm people behind the music and the politics. Starting with their controversial gig at the 1994 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, the film chronicles four years of the band. [1]
The images presented on stage of blow jobs, sadomasochistic acts and mock castrations are not shocking the audience for shock's sake, for example Lynn Breedlove, the lead singer wore a strap-on dildo. [2] Breedlove often got young men up from the audience to "service" her, this act was to break the taboo of straight male penetration. [3] The documentary portrays on a deeper level through the band members' intense personal disclosures.
Tribe 8 Band Members:
As Chuck Wilson writes in LA Weekly , "Filmmaker Tracy Flannigan gets it all in close-up, but also captures the rich and complex life stories of these women, whose lives take on political weight based on sheer authenticity". These interviews inform an understanding and respect for why they do what they do. Especially insightful are the interviews with singer Lynn Breedlove and her mother. This documentary concludes that it is the humor and physicality that lies within the controversial performance that gives these five individuals the peace to experience the rapture of being alive. Kevin Thomas, in the Los Angeles Times , says "their lyrics are confrontational and political, but also cathartic... exudes the sheer exhilaration of individuals who have learned how to live liberated, fulfilling lives."
Dennis Harvey's review for Variety states the film is "A suitably raw, wholly engaging documentary.... offers a unique perspective on the lesbian community’s own shift... to a more encompassing embrace of rebellious fringe elements". [4]
Reece Pendleton of Chicago Reader noted it was "a routine documentary" and "only real drama dates to 1994", noting when a protest was held against the band. [5]
The film has won many awards, including "Best Documentary" at Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, [6] "Audience Award" at the Hamburg Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the award for "Outstanding Emerging Talent" at OUTfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Queercore is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically society's disapproval of the LGBT community. Queercore expresses itself in a DIY style through magazines, music, writing and film.
Tribe 8 was a lesbian punk rock band from San Francisco, considered one of the first queercore groups. The band took their name from the practice of tribadism, with "tribe eight" being a play on the word tribade, a sexual practice sometimes also known as "scissoring."
Pansy Division are an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, United States, in 1991 by guitarist and singer-songwriter Jon Ginoli along with bassist Chris Freeman.
Bruce LaBruce is a Canadian artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, and underground director based in Toronto.
Phranc, is an American singer-songwriter whose career began playing in several bands in the late 1970s Los Angeles punk rock scene. Her musical style later shifted during the 1980s as a solo artist, into a self-proclaimed "All-American Jewish lesbian folksinger."
Sister George were an English band from London, recognised as being significant in the 1990s queercore scene, who formed in 1993.
Outpunk enjoys the distinction of being the first record label entirely devoted to queer punk bands.
J.D.s was a Canadian queer punk zine which started in 1985 and ran for eight issues until 1991. The zine was co-authored by G.B Jones and Bruce LaBruce and is credited as being one of the first and most influential queer zines. The zine's content was centred around anarchic queer-punk themes and heavily discussed queer-skewed punk music from the late 1980s.
Mr. Lady Records was a San Francisco-based lesbian-feminist independent record label and video art distributor. Artists on the label included Le Tigre and The Butchies. OutSmart magazine noted that Mr. Lady was "queercore's strongest label."
Women's music is a movement, chiefly in Western popular music, said to promote music "by women, for women, and about women". The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement was started by lesbian performers such as Cris Williamson, Meg Christian and Margie Adam, African-American musicians including Linda Tillery, Mary Watkins, Gwen Avery and activists such as Bernice Johnson Reagon and her group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and peace activist Holly Near. Women's music also refers to the wider industry of women's music that goes beyond the performing artists to include studio musicians, producers, sound engineers, technicians, cover artists, distributors, promoters, and festival organizers who are also women.
Leslie Mah is an American musician and performer.
Lynn Breedlove is an American musician, writer, and performer who was born in Oakland, California.
Tracy Flannigan is an independent filmmaker residing in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles who began making movies when she was seventeen years old. She has created numerous short films and music videos. Her work has been screened at many film festivals throughout the United States including South by Southwest and Seattle International.
Sister Spit was a lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members included Jane LeCroy and poet Eileen Myles. The group were noted for their Ramblin' Roadshow, performing at feminist events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. The Boston Phoenix described it as "the coolest line-up of talented, tattooed, pierced, and purple-pigtailed performance artists the Bay Area has to offer."
DUMBA was a collective living space and anarchist, queer, all-ages community center and venue in Brooklyn, New York.
Lucy Thane is a British documentary filmmaker, event producer and performer, living in Folkestone. Her films include It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill in the UK (1993) and She's Real (1997).
Jon Latimer Ginoli is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is best known as a member of Pansy Division, a band that was founded by Ginoli and Chris Freeman in 1991. He is openly gay. Pansy Division is known as one of the founding examples of the queercore genre of punk rock, and has released seven studio albums, first on Lookout Records and later on Alternative Tentacles.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+(LGBTQ+)music is music that focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement.
Radical Harmonies is a 2002 American independent documentary film directed and executive produced by Dee Mosbacher that presents a history of women's music, which has been defined as music by women, for women, and about women. The film was screened primarily at LGBTQ film festivals in 2003 and 2004.
Fist City is the first studio album by the American queer punk band Tribe 8, released in 1995. The band supported the album with a North American tour.
