Rebel Dykes
- Director: Harri Shanahan; Siân A. Williams
CGiii Comment
Sweet, sweet, raunchy nostalgia...this is herstory!
London in the 80s...for those of a certain age [and who lived in London], this is an absolute trip-down-memory-lane, rib-tickling treat. Remember...this is before we all had mobiles with cameras, this is before the Internet...this is when we all went out, searching to find...exactly what we wanted to get into! And...when you found it, there was no going back...other than going back [regularly] to what you had found. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Club nights used to spring up all over the place [and close just as quickly]...in some of the dodgiest areas, in some seriously dodgy venues...with blacked-out windows and a weird smell of disinfectant.
It is true to say...that women were under-served, in London in the 80s. There was The Black Cap in Camden [20p entrance fee to get through to the back and it always ended with a girl-on-girl fight], there was The Bell in Kings Cross [not the Kings X of now...then, it was notorious, for all the wrong reasons]...and then, there was The Market Tavern - fabulous filth! There were a few more 'posher' places...but, who wants posh when you can have filth!?!
Oh and there was always Greenham Common, 90 minutes away...that is, if you wanted to rough it with like-minded spirits!
Rebel Dykes is a blast...from the past. Where they got some of the footage from is testament to the directors dedication and research. The 'rebels' may have mellowed with the passing years...but, wow, they all still revel in those rebellious memories - once you got it, you never lose it! With this film, those memories have been [rightfully] preserved...this is herstory told by those who made it...happen. Brilliant...just bloody brilliant.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
REBEL DYKES is a full-length documentary about the explosion that happened when punk met feminism, told through the lives of a gang of lesbians in the riotous London of the 1980s.