Women with a Past

Women with a Past brings together four 20th century artists—Yvonne Rainer, Christine Choy, Martha Rosler, and Nancy Spero—in videotaped interviews, shaped and edited by Lyn Blumenthal to examine the art of documentary. In a skillfully woven series of scenes in which the interviewer’s voice is not heard, the interviewees appear to be talking directly, intimately to the viewer. Blumenthal used short segments of each woman’s work to demonstrate how her philosophical and political stances are articulated.