The Punk Singer

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Movie review by Greg Carlson

An exuberant and emotionally involving portrait of rock star Kathleen Hanna sure to please longtime fans while making plenty of new ones, Sini Anderson’s “The Punk Singer” joins a crowded slate of terrific music-oriented documentaries released in 2013. The filmmaker’s friendship with the outspoken leader of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and, more recently, the Julie Ruin allows for unprecedented access to Hanna and her circle of colleagues and collaborators, resulting in a kind of mid-career retrospective that makes a compelling argument for Hanna’s future induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – or if that institution isn’t cool enough, perhaps a Punk Rock Hall of Fame.

Hanna’s energy is apparent from her first spoken word performances, and Anderson includes a clip from a 1991 Wordcore event in Olympia that will stop you in your tracks. Swinging her arms and rocking back and forth while she stamps her shoes in rhythm, Hanna says, “I am your worst nightmare come to life. I’m a girl who you can’t shut up. There’s not a guy big enough can handle this mouth. I’m going to tell everyone what you did to me. It was the middle of the night in my house. It was the middle of the night in my house. It was the middle of the night in my house…” It’s the perfect introduction to Kathleen Hanna’s unmistakable self-expression.

For those lucky enough to have witnessed Bikini Kill in their prime, “The Punk Singer” inspires plenty of nostalgia and reflection. The particular way that Hanna used her voice to articulate feminist ideals with a blunt clarity that cut through so much noise is displayed in both the vintage footage and the recent interviews. Many devotees will want to hurry back to Lucy Thane’s indispensable tour doc “It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill in the U.K.,” a valuable companion piece to Anderson’s film. The filmmaker also includes a bit of Hanna’s red ski mask interview from Tamra Davis’s “No Alternative Girls,” the short that brought riot grrrl to the attention of many suburban Midwesterners after guest-host Thurston Moore programmed it on an episode of “120 Minutes.”

Fueled by archival footage of Hanna performing solo and as a frontwoman, “The Punk Singer” is an essential record of one crucial facet of the riot grrrl movement. Anderson arranges the content of “The Punk Singer” principally in chronological order, although a tease in which interview subjects wonder aloud why Hanna just seemed to drop off the radar in 2005 sets up the revelation of Hanna’s ongoing struggle with Lyme disease, an affliction that temporarily derailed her recording and performing career.

All the historical bullet points are touched, including the DIY philosophy, the title origin of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the “girls to the front” ethos of Bikini Kill shows, the distribution of fanzines, the “Bull in the Heather” cameo, the assault by Courtney Love, and the unlikely courtship of Adam Horovitz, but the scenes directly addressing Hanna’s debilitating illness are among the film’s most memorable, particularly because her admirers can hardly imagine seeing that kind of vulnerability revealed by their fierce heroine and champion.

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