Willse and Spade, “We are Born in Flames”

Willse and Spade’s article points to the ways in which Borden’s film Born in Flames presents activism and community building. More specifically, they reference the film’s centering of conflict and critique — mainly of the conflicts between white feminists and women of color feminists. Though it is noted that parts of this dealing with and presentation of conflict feel dated when viewing the film in a more contemporary context, its refusal to offer any sort of resolution very much remains relevant to feminist movements of today. As the authors write, “Instead of providing a pat narrative of a unified movement advocating for a single clear demand, Born in Flames leaves us with the unexploded bomb – the possibility that we do not know, cannot know, where we are in the history of the transformations we seek…” (3). Borden’s film thus does not leave viewers with a sense of satisfaction in this way, but instead incorporates the realities of organizing across difference in its imagining of a “utopic-dystopic” society.
On this, one part of the article I found interesting was Willse and Spade’s mentioning of Borden’s film as part documentary, part science fiction in terms of its documenting/commentary on existing social movements, as well as its imagining of what these movements might look like in the future. This perhaps speaks to the film’s lack of resolution — its mixing of present concerns and ideas of the future showcases the non-linearity of progress when it comes to social organizing. Moreover, Born in Flames utilizes this form of speculative storytelling to make explicit divisions across race, gender, and class – rather than depicting these differences as somehow neutralized – in its envisioning of what an activist society would look like and operate in the context of these conflicts.