''Fresh Kill'' is a 1994 British-American

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

directed by

Shu Lea Cheang Shu Lea Cheang () (born April 13, 1954) is a Taiwanese-American artist and filmmaker who lived and worked in New York City in the 1980s and 90s, until relocating to the EuroZone in 2000. Cheang received a BA in history from the National Taiwan Un ...

and written by

Jessica Hagedorn Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn (born 1949) is an American playwright, writer, poet, and multimedia performance artist. Biography Hagedorn is an American of mixed descent. She was born in Manila to a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Spanish Fi ...

. It stars

Sarita Choudhury Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury (born 18 August 1966) is a British actress, known for her role as Mina in the Mira Nair-directed feature film '' Mississippi Masala'' (1991). Choudhury has played roles in American and international films and te ...

and Erin McMurtry as Shareen Lightfoot and Claire Mayakovsky, two lesbian parents who are drawn into a corporate conspiracy involving the

Fresh Kills Landfill The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the New York City borough of Staten Island in the United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island. The landfil ...

. ''Fresh Kill'' was an official selection at the 1994

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

and the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

and is noted for its influence on hacker subculture, with an article about the film for the now-defunct hacker publication ''InfoNation'' containing one of the first uses of the term "

hacktivism In Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism (a portmanteau of ''hack'' and ''activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hac ...

Synopsis

Shareen Lightfoot and Claire Mayakovsky raise their daughter Honey near the

on Staten Island in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Shareen works as a salvager recovering refuse from the landfill, while Claire works as a waitress at a sushi restaurant. The city is heavily contaminated with

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

that adversely affects local animals and food; Claire brings home contaminated fish from the restaurant that is eaten by Honey, who begins glowing green and then vanishes. Shareen and Claire discover that the multinational GX Corporation is responsible for the pollution and Honey's disappearance, and become involved in an effort to

hack Hack may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * ''Hack'' (Unix video game), a 1984 roguelike video game * ''.hack'' (video game series), a series of video games by the multimedia franchise ''.hack'' Music * ''Hack'' (album), a 199 ...

and expose the company with sushi chef and hacker Jiannbin Lui, and poet and dishwasher Miguel Flores.

Cast

as Shareen Lightfoot * Erin McMurtry as Claire Mayakovsky * Abraham Lim as Jiannbin Lui *

José Zúñiga José Zúñiga (born April 1, 1965) is a Honduran-American actor.José Zúñiga profile
filmrefere ...

as Miguel Flores *

Laurie Carlos Laurie Dorothea Carlos (née Smith; January 25, 1949 – December 29, 2016) was an American actress and avant-garde performance artist, playwright and theater director. She was also known for her work mentoring emerging artists in the theater. ...

as Mimi Mayakovsky * Will Kempe as Stuart Sterling * Nelini Stamp as Honey *

Rino Thunder Rino Thunder (October 29, 1933 – September 27, 2003) was an American actor best known for such films and television series as '' Geronimo: An American Legend'', '' Wolfen'', ''Hot Shots!'', '' Beyond the Law'' and ''American Playhouse ''A ...

as Clayton Lightfoot

Production

''Fresh Kill'' was directed by

and written by

. The film bills itself as "eco cyber noia", the term "cyber noia" (or "cybernoia") having been coined by Cheang to describe "massive intrusions of networking technology into people's lives," and what she foresaw as "a future where multinational media empires clash with hackers." Cheang has stated that the film was motivated by a desire to depict the relationship between the media and

environmental racism Environmental racism or ecological apartheid is a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionally placed in communities of colour. Internationally, it is also associated with ...

, drawing parallels between the dumping of industrial toxic waste in the

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

with "the dumping of garbage TV programs" into Third World countries. Hagedorn has stated that she wished to invert typical expectations and cliché stock characters, though sought not to "reverse things for their own sake," noting that Honey's parentage and the differing races of characters with direct biological relations are specifically never explained.

Release

The film premiered on April 23, 1994 at the

USA Film Festival The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and was an official selection at the 1994

and at the

. It was released theatrically in the United States on January 12, 1996. ''Fresh Kill'' also screened at the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

in 1995, and at the Asian American International Film Festival in 2019.

Critical response and legacy

In a review for ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', critic Kevin Thomas offered praise for Cheang's direction and Hagedorn's writing, noting that the film's "interaction of a deteriorating environment, burgeoning cyberspace and mounting urban paranoia ..create a vividly contemporary background" for a "gentle lesbian love story." The

Quad Cinema The Quad Cinema is New York City's first small four-screen multiplex theater. Located at 34 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village, it was opened by entrepreneur Maurice Kanbar, along with his younger brother Elliott S. Kanbar in October 1972. I ...

, where the film had its U.S. premiere, called ''Fresh Kill'' "an underseen radical feminist gem" and favorably compared it to ''

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

'' and ''

Born in Flames ''Born in Flames'' is a 1983 documentary-style feminist fiction film by Lizzie Borden that explores racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism in an alternative United States socialist democracy. The title comes from the song "Born in Flames" wr ...

''. Conversely,

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' offered praise for the film's soundtrack but described ''Fresh Kill'' as "aimless, arty self-indulgence carried to a remarkable extreme," while

Nathan Rabin Nathan Rabin (; born April 24, 1976) is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for '' The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013.

of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' surmised that the film was "too confused and disjointed to be anything but a well-intentioned, intermittently interesting failure." The film is noted for its themes of solidarity by marginalized groups against racism and sexism; its condemnation of transnational capitalism; and its depiction of how "resistance circulates through networks originally designed to facilitate the exchange of labor, commodities, and capital." In her analysis of ''Fresh Kill'', Gina Marchetti notes how the film depicts "the emancipatory potential of the digital," offering "hope for seizing the means of communication by reflecting on its own production and providing an image of radical media empowerment to inspire others." The film is noted for its influence on hacker subculture, with a 1995 article about the film for the now-defunct hacker publication ''InfoNation'' containing one of the first uses of the term "

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt0109843 1994 films 1994 drama films 1994 independent films 1994 LGBT-related films American science fiction drama films 1990s science fiction drama films American independent films American LGBT-related films Lesbian-related films Works about computer hacking British films set in New York City Film4 Productions films American avant-garde and experimental films American feminist films Hacker culture 1990s English-language films 1990s American films British feminist films British independent films British avant-garde and experimental films British LGBT-related films British science fiction drama films 1990s British films