''My Name is Andrea'' is a 2022 documentary film by

Pratibha Parmar Pratibha Parmar is a British writer and filmmaker. She has made feminist documentaries such as '' Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth'' and '' My Name is Andrea'' about Andrea Dworkin. Early life Parmar was born in Nairobi, Kenya to Indian parents and ...

about the

second wave feminist Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. W ...

and public figure,

Andrea Dworkin Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen solo ...

. It tells the story of Dworkin's life through a hybrid mix of archive footage and dramatic performances by five different actresses:

Amandla Stenberg Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress. She was included in ''Time''s list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016, and has received several accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an NAACP Image Award, and n ...

Soko Soko ( sh-Cyrl, Соко) was a Yugoslav aircraft manufacturer based in Mostar, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company was responsible for the production of many military aircraft for the Yugoslav Air Force. SOKO was created in 1950 by the rel ...

Andrea Riseborough Andrea Louise Riseborough (born 20 November 1981) is an English actress and producer. She made her film debut with a small part in ''Venus'' (2006), and has since appeared in more prominent roles in '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008), '' Never Let Me Go ...

Ashley Judd Ashley Judd (born Ashley Tyler Ciminella; April 19, 1968) is an American actress. She grew up in a family of performing artists: she is the daughter of the late country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of country music singer Wynonna ...

and

Christine Lahti Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and filmmaker. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film '' Swing Shift''. Her other film roles include '' ...And Justice for All'' (19 ...

. The film premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

and was generally praised by critics.

Synopsis

''My Name is Andrea'' tells the story of Andrea Dworkin's life through a mixture of archive footage and dramatic performances by five different actresses, representing her at different ages:

and

play a young Dworkin, interested in poetry and politics;

is the wife in Amsterdam;

and

play the older Dworkin as she became a public figure. Events in Dworkin's life are depicted such as her sexual assault by two male doctors at the

New York Women's House of Detention The New York Women's House of Detention was a women's prison in Manhattan, New York City which existed from 1932 to 1974. Built on the site of the Jefferson Market Prison that had succeeded the Jefferson Market in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, t ...

, her friendship with

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

, her marriage and abusive relationship in Amsterdam, her focus on writing, her many public appearances including one at the

Cambridge Union The Cambridge Union Society, also known as the Cambridge Union, is a debating and free speech society in Cambridge, England, and the largest society in the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1815, it is the oldest continuously running debatin ...

, her collaboration with

Catharine A. MacKinnon Catharine Alice MacKinnon (born October 7, 1946) is an American radical feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been tenured since 1990, a ...

, her 1999 rape in Paris and her long loving relationship with

John Stoltenberg John Stoltenberg (born 1944) is an American author, activist, magazine editor, college lecturer, playwright, and theater reviewer who identifies his political perspective as radical feminist. For several years he has worked for ''DC Metro Theat ...

. The archive footage includes home video of Dworkin with her family as a child and appearances on ''

The Phil Donahue Show ''The Phil Donahue Show'', also known as ''Donahue'', is an American television talk show hosted by Phil Donahue that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast on WLWD in Dayton, Ohio, and i ...

'' and '' After Dark''. There are also references to contemporary feminist issues such as the murders of

Sarah Everard On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police office ...

and Sabina Nessa.

Production

told

Alexandra Juhasz Alexandra Jeanne "Alex" Juhasz (born March 12, 1964) is a feminist writer and theorist of media production. Education Juhasz received her B.A. in American Studies and English at Amherst College in 1986. Shortly after graduating she participated ...

in ''

Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

'' magazine that it took her eight years to make the documentary. Her first step was to write a screenplay based entirely on

's own words. The executive producers included

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in ...

and the music was arranged by Nitin Sawney.

Release

The film premiered in June 2022 at the

in the USA and at

Sheffield DocFest Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest), short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England. The Festival includes film sc ...

in the UK.

Critical response

Critics generally praised the hybrid documentary style which Parmar used.

Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He first ...

writing in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' called the film "deeply moving" and ''

The London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

'' found the film "crafted, emotive, and powerful". The ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'' review also praised aspects of the films, whilst criticizing its "dogged insistence on sugarcoating Dworkin’s legacy".

References

External links

*
Official website
{{Authority control 2022 documentary films Feminist films