Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden (born Feb. 3, 1955?, Detroit, Mich., U.S.) is an American filmmaker whose feminist perspective informed her eclectic style and subjects, which largely defy mainstream cinema.

Borden earned her bachelor’s degree in fine arts at Wellesley College and received a master’s in fine arts from Queens College of the City University of New York. Regroupings (1976), an experimental feature-length film she directed, was shown in New York City, but she made her mark in filmmaking in 1983 when her feminist classic Born in Flames—directed and produced on a budget of about $30,000—received considerable critical attention. Borden wrote, directed, edited, and produced the 1986 film Working Girls, a feminist docudrama that attempts to de-eroticize the subject of prostitution. Its main character is a Yale University graduate who lives with a female lover and aspires to become a professional photographer. Borden’s next feature, the thriller Love Crimes (1991), was made in Hollywood with a budget of more than $6 million. Studio reediting of Borden’s original conclusion, however, made the ending both abrupt and confusing. In 1994 she cowrote and directed “Let’s Talk About Sex,” the American segment (segment 1) of Erotique (1994).