Short film

Fire! Hendrix
3 min
A jittery, collaged three-minute burst of pop imagery that feels like an ad turned inside out, demanding you decode its critique as it flashes past.
- Directed by
- Dara Birnbaum
- Overview
- Commissioned by VideoGram International, Ltd., for a videodisc of music by Jimi Hendrix, Fire! uses the stylized visuals and pacing of a music video to critique the representational economies of sexuality and consumerism. Translating the psychedelic fervor of the Hendrix song into a contemporary visual vernacular, Birnbaum similarly recasts the lyrics' meaning. A young woman is the "protagonist" of a fragmented narrative in which Birnbaum re-frames images of American consumerism and commodities — fast food, cars, the exchange of money. Birnbaum calls attention to the woman's relation to the advertising image: she is consumed as she is consuming.
- How it feels
- Satirical, cynical and tense. Brisk and demanding.
- About
- Media, class, gender, identity
- Content
- Mild sexual content. No violence, gore or swearing.
- Note
- Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown
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