GIRLS ROCK!(2008) directed by Arne Johnson and Shane King
OMG, I usually try to be the proper journalist and wait until after I've finished a film before I review it, but the documentary "Girls Rock!" is too special to lollygag. Think "Rock School" but more kick-ass!
"Girls Rock!" tells the story of 8-18 year old girls attending the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, OR. I had to step on letting you know about this film because if you're a fan of 90's rock, especially 90's Riot Grrls and female rockers like Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, Kim Deal of The Breeders, PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, as well as the girl-empowerment politics of the time, this is the film for you.
"Girls Rock!" embodies the strongly feminist politics of 90's women, as well as the sincere belief that not only can a woman rock as hard as a man, but rock in a unique way all her own. The goal of the camp is to get pre-pubescent and pubescent girls to build self-esteem and discover their inner talent through joining bands, and writing and playing songs in the course of a week. This message is punctuated by title cards, displaying very illuminating statistics concerning the devaluation of women in music and in society at large, that divide the film's segments.
Though the film is low-budget and lacks a tight structure, this punk rock aesthetic works for the film given its subject. The young girl subjects are incredibly compelling and the presence of (indie-)rock superstar counselors at the camp such as Carrie Brownstein of the aforementioned Sleater-Kinney and Beth Ditto of The Gossip seals the deal for Your 90's-ologist.
I also really loved how they acknowledged the difficulties faced by those non-white girls attending the camp, as well as a girl who was from a lower-class socio-economic background than most of the girls. Their issues with self-esteem and fitting in weren't ignored, and it reminded me quite a bit of another Offically 90's documentary that I love, "Afropunk" (2003) by director James Spooner.
Watching this just makes me wish I had been able to participate in something like this when I was 13. I was exactly like these socially awkward, yet crazy smart and artistically talented girls, but it took me until I was 19 to pick up a guitar (I was a pencils nut in high school; I was a pencil drawing artist and a member of the National Art Honor Society). I love the message that girls should be able to learn and express themselves at their own pace, free from criticism from boys, and other girls for that matter...they also make the pertinent point that girls are often socialized to demean other girls at a very early age.
Please check out the trailer of this lovely doc:
In the special features, I love when the Korean girl goes through her CDs and gets to Kittie, and she singsongs, "If you're a teenage girl and you're into metal, you'll have been into Kittie at some point, I don't care what you say..." Which is hilarious and true.
If you have a daughter, granddaughter, niece or otherwise little female rocker in your life, click to find info on the 2009 Rock and Roll Camp for Girls. Rock on!
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