BORN IN FLAMES Film Screening - FOMO Indi Film Fest
Thursday 5. March at 18:00 - 19:30
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
Lizzie Borden | 1983 | USA | 1h30m | English language with English subtitles
BORN IN FLAMES is presented as part of the week-long Independent Film Fest at FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi, showcasing the best emerging filmmaking talent from across the globe.
Made over five years on a microbudget and shot guerrilla style on the streets of New York, BORN IN FLAMES is one of the most uncompromising feminist films in American independent cinema. Set in a near future socialist United States ten years after a peaceful revolution, the film asks the simple question: What if the revolution happened, but the patriarchy persisted?
Told through pirate radio broadcasts, documentary fragments, protest footage and staged scenes, BORN IN FLAMES follows a loose network of women, activists, artists and workers who grow increasingly frustrated with a male dominated political system that claims to be progressive. Lizzie Borden blurs fiction and documentary, creating a film that feels urgent rather than polished. Non-professional performers and real activists appear alongside scripted moments, collapsing the distance between cinema and political action.
The film did not achieve major commercial success, but its influence has been profound. Long before intersectionality became a common term, BORN IN FLAMES placed race, class, sexuality and gender at the center of feminist politics. Its depiction of queer women as political leaders anticipated later movements in New Queer Cinema and grassroots media activism. You can see its spirit in films like THE WATERMELON WOMAN, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE and Julia Ducournau's TITANE, works that continue to challenge who controls the image and who gets to speak.
That urgency is precisely why BORN IN FLAMES belongs in INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK. Its independence is not just financial, but ideological. Borden uses the freedom of microbudget filmmaking to question power structures directly, turning the film into something that feels less like a product and more like a call to action. It stands as a reminder that independent cinema can reshape political conversation as much as it reshapes form.
Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
How to find FOMO: Enter the Bazari via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left as soon as you enter next to the karaoke booth. FOMO is one flight up. Video instructions here: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235
T&Cs: Guests must enter the Bazari by 23:00 to gain access to the FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar. If the Atoneli St entrance is locked you can get in via the side entrance on Sulkhanishvil St between 21:00 and 23:00. We close at 02:00 each evening.
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
