WANDA

Showings

THEATER 1 Mon, Oct 2, 2023 8:00 PM
THEATER 1 Sun, Oct 8, 2023 4:00 PM
Film Info
Runtime:102
Release Year:1970
Rating:PG
Production Country:USA
Original Language:English
Cast/Crew Info
Director:Barbara Loden
Cast:Barbara Loden
Michael Higgins
Dorothy Shupenes
Peter Shupenes
Jerome Thier
Screenwriter:Barbara Loden

Description

A talented, Tony-winning actress, perhaps best known for her performance in SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, Loden’s WANDA is a remarkable, verite-style portrait of womanhood. The titular Wanda (played by Loden) is an unhappy housewife who drifts through rural coal mining country after leaving her husband and children. A woman unmoored, Wanda wanders from man to man—a one-night stand, a criminal, a stranger—their abusive and dismissive treatment of her a reflection of the tyranny of misogyny in America. Made at a time when few women were behind the camera, WANDA shook the foundations of independent cinema and unwaveringly presented a flawed female protagonist rarely seen on screen, even more than 50 years later. Though critically lauded—the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, the only film from America that year—WANDA never received distribution and was criminally underseen. Loden turned her creative attention back to the stage and tragically died in 1980.