1973

In the aftermath of the American avant-garde period, media artist Barbara Hammer, armed with two samurai swords, traverses her own body and reborn sexuality. To the rhythm of diary excerpts read aloud and aggressive string music, she chains herself up, buries her head in the sand, and masturbates among her houseplants, while the neighbourhood children watch from outside.

The footage in this rare film by legendary filmmaker Mustafa Abu Ali was shot by a French news team, after which Abu Ali edited it into one of the earliest films about the occupied territory in Gaza.

Like fellow filmmakers Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard, French director Bruno Muel belonged to the militant Medvedkine, a group of socially engaged filmmakers active between 1967 and 1974. In Septembre Chilien, a documentary about the 1973 coup, he mixes official footage with clandestine shots of the rising opposition.