Named an “instant classic”, Elena’s Gorfinkel’s fantastic new book “WANDA“ is out and making waves! She also has concurrently curated a BFI film series, WANDA AND BEYOND, centered on the seminal film WANDA by Barbara Loden, and including Nina Menkes’s Las Vegas classic, QUEEN of DIAMONDS.
Wanda and Beyond offers a refreshing approach, which reframes Loden’s minimal filmography as a portal into a wider cinematic cosmos, a constellation of films that speak to and overlap with Wanda’s production and afterlife. A focus on Loden’s career as a Hollywood actor, and screenings of her educational shorts, offer wider perspective on the filmmaker, while a strand exploring other “mad housewives and wayward women” of 1970s cinema gives social and political context to Loden’s proto-feminist anti-heroine. Elsewhere, the season examines the classic cinema that influenced Loden, and traces her later influence on filmmakers such as Nina Menkes and Kelly Reichardt.
We are honored to be included in this incredible series!