Sandra Lahire (19 November 1950 – 27 July 2001) was a central figure in the experimental

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

filmmaking Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

that emerged in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.

Life and career

Lahire studied Philosophy at the

University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a memb ...

, (BA Hons) Fine Art Film and Video at

St Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of t ...

, London, (1984) and Film & Environmental Media at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, London (MA 1986). It was at St Martin's that she entered the world of independent film, working with lecturers/film-makers and video artists including

Malcolm Le Grice Malcolm Le Grice (15 May 1940 – 3 December 2024) was a British artist known for his avant-garde film work. The British Film Institute claimed that he was "probably the most influential modernist filmmaker in British cinema". Biography Le Gri ...

, William Raban, Anna Thew,

Tina Keane Tina Keane (born 1940) is a British artist who has worked with film, video, digital media, and performance, and been a forerunner of multimedia art in the UK. Reflecting a feminist perspective, her works have often explored gender roles, sexuali ...

and

Vera Neubauer Vera Neubauer is a Czech born British experimental filmmaker, animator, feminist activist and educator. She is known for her jarring, provocative and anti establishment approach. Her life's work spans genres, from cinematic short film to televisi ...

and studying alongside film-makers Richard Heslop, Martine Thoquenne and

Isaac Julien Sir Isaac Julien (born 21 February 1960Annette Kuhn"Julien, Isaac (1960–)" BFI Screen Online.) is a British installation artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Early life Juli ...

. Her poetic short films were made in the context of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative in the 1980’s, which “developed a new form of mixed-genre film-making ��.which marked a new stage in experimental film in Britain”, according to

Jacqueline Rose Jacqueline Rose (born 1949) is a British academic who is Professor of Humanities at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities. She is known for her work on the relationship between psychoanalysis, feminism and literature. Life and work Rose ...

. Of this generation Rose has described Lahire as “one of the most gifted, innovative and bold experimental film-makers”. Her first film, "Arrows", 1984, was a meditation on

anorexia Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by Calorie restriction, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. Individuals wit ...

, a subject that threaded throughout her work. In 1986 she made ‘’Terminals’’, ‘’Edge’’, and ‘’Plutonium Blonde’’. Working alongside Arts Council/Channel 4 award winning film-makers Jean Matthee “Descent of a Seductress” (1987) and Anna Thew “Behind Closed Doors” (1987/8) at the London Film-makers Co-operative, Camden, and Four Corners film workshop, Bethnal Green, Sandra Lahire made ‘’Uranium Hex’’(1987), for Channel 4/Illuminations “Ghosts in the Machine” ‘’Serpent River’’,1989, explored the toxic effects of a

uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...

corporation, owned by

Rio Tinto Zinc Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Río Tinto, in Huelv ...

, on the residents and inhabitants of

Serpent River The Serpent River is a tributary of the Mégiscane River, flowing into the townships of Trévet, Vasson and Noiseux, in the territory of Senneterre, in La Vallée-de-l'Or Regional County Municipality (RCM), in the administrative region of Abitib ...

and

Elliot Lake Elliot Lake is a city in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is north of Lake Huron, midway between the cities of Greater Sudbury, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie in the Northern Ontario region. Once dubbed the "uranium ca ...

in Ontario, Canada. In 1991 she made ‘’Lady Lazarus’’, the first part of a trilogy ‘’Living on Air’’, which was inspired by the poetry of

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

and which she made across the span of nine years. The film incorporated an interview with Plath given just before she died. The lead of ‘’Living on Air’’ was played by fellow film-maker Sarah Turner. ‘’Eerie’’ followed in 1992. The second part of the Plath trilogy, ‘’Night Dances’’, 1995, presented Hebrew inscriptions on worn gravestones and allusions to Yom Kippur through which Lahire explored Jewish aspects of her identity. ‘’Persephone’’ and ‘’Knife Born’’ were made in 1997-98, with the final of the Plath trilogy, ‘’Johnny Panic’’, appearing in 1999. Marina Grzinic has noted Lahire's “profound filmic commentary on anorexia. The body, always that body that is coming near the image of a spectre, that is connected solely with 'air and bones' while minimizing the flesh to zero, is also the primal element she uses to establish her relationship with her surroundings, particularly with a landscape destroyed by pollution or nuclear waste.” Grzinic also underscores the centrality of light and sound in her works, with which “she recreated emotional situations and connections between personal obsession(s) and social structures.” An essay by Lahire, ''Lesbians in Media Education'', appeared in the anthology ''Visibly Female: Feminism and Art'', edited by

Hilary Robinson Hilary Robinson is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours'', played by Anne Scott-Pendlebury. The character first appeared on-screen during the episode broadcast on 25 June 1987. Hilary departed the show on 28 February ...

in 1998. She also wrote an essay for Coil Magazine "The Fairies Banquet", 1999, on Sarah Pucill's film Swollen Stigma (1998) who was her fellow filmmaker and partner at the time. For Make Magazine Issue 7, which was a special issue on the Miniature 1999, she wrote an essay,
Little Deaths
, on her film Johnny Panic (1999) and Sarah Pucill's film Cast (1999). Reflections on Lahire and her work by film-makers Sarah Pucill (who was her partner in the last 6 years of her life),

Lis Rhodes Lis Rhodes (born 1942) is a British artist and feminist filmmaker, known for her density, concentration, and poeticism in her visual works. She has been active in the UK since the early 1970s. Early life and education Rhodes was brought up in W ...

(for whom Lahire wrote a score for her film ''Just About Now'') and Sarah Turner appeared in ''Vertigo'' magazine in Spring 2002.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lahire, Sandra British feminists British women film directors British experimental filmmakers Feminist filmmakers 20th-century British Jews Jewish British feminists Anorexia nervosa Uranium mining 1950 births 2001 deaths British lesbian artists 20th-century British LGBTQ people 20th-century British women artists

Life and career

See also

References

External links