ONCE A FURY
Film poster for "Once A Fury" with red hand and cross on left side.
ONCE A FURY
Film poster for "Once A Fury" with red hand and cross on left side.
Sisterhood is complicated

ONCE A FURY

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2022 LAVENDER RHETORICS AWARD FOR BEST QUEER RESEARCH (NONTRADITIONAL) - Conference on College Composition & Communication | BEST DOCUMENTARY - Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival

Lesbian Feminism • Feminist History • 1970s Radical Movements • Feminist Print Culture • Separatism • Collective Living

Date of Completion: 2020 | Run Time: 83 minutes​​ | Language: English with English, Spanish, French, & German subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript & Study Guide | Director: Jacqueline RhodesProducer: Jacqueline Rhodes

ONCE A FURY profiles members of The Furies, a 1970s radical collective that developed a lesbian-feminist politic to correct what they called the "zig-zag and haphazard" thinking of the straight women's movement. The collective was thus formed in resistant counterpoint to the larger women’s movement, much as that larger womenʼs movement itself was formed in counterpoint to the male-dominated New Left of the 1960s. That is, just as activists in the women’s movement experienced sexism in the New Left, lesbian activists experienced homophobia in the women’s movement. Such activists formed collectives like the Furies. The collective was intense and short-lived: twelve women began the group, worked together, and then broke up in under two years. In that short time, they wrote and published a widely read newspaper (The Furies) that advanced their ideology and still seems relevant half a century later. The newspaper lives on in libraries, in private collections, in archives, and on the web.

Educational Media Reviews Online | Reviewed by Jarvis Sparks, Librarian, Media & Student Outreach, Langara College
"The film is a unique insight into the dynamics of the group and intensity of living in the Furies collective as an experience for its members."

Women’s Review of Books | Shane Snowdon
“Superb”

LesFlicks | Maia R.
Dripping with personality and a level of simmering frustration, Once A Fury offers a fascinating watch for those of us who have wondered if the world could ever be better than it is.”

Bay Area Reporter | Brian Bromberger
“These were intense, opinionated women, some of whom 50 years later regret their participation in the Furies. But most of them —after their involvement— proceeded to implement feminist change. They've all remained politically active now into their seventies. Even if you don't agree with their philosophy, their analysis laid the groundwork for our contemporary understanding of intersectionality. Once A Fury is provocative and exasperating, but never boring and you will have much to ponder after the last frame ends.”

Berkeleyside | John Seal
[A] potent and by no means uncritical examination of The Furies, whose political differences and cultural blindspots still rankle decades after the fact. It’s a fascinating, lively, and very relevant film that young activists would benefit from seeing.”