Yvonne Rainer

Yvonne Rainer's sixth feature is a genuinely subversive movie about menopause. Out of a subject that has been virtually invisible on film, Rainer has fashioned a witty, risky work about sexual identity and the unequal economies of race, gender and class. (Zeitgeist Films)

Around a familiar theme--the breakup of a marriage--Rainer constructs an honest, graceful and wickedly funny account of a self-satisfied womanizer, Jack Deller, the man "who almost knows too much about women. (zeitgeistfilms)

To explore the ramifications of terrorism, Rainer employs an extended therapy session -- in which an American woman speaks to a series of psychiatrists -- to evoke the daily experiences of power and repression. (zeitgeistfilms.com)

Kristina, a self-named Hungarian female lion tamer, arrives in New York to become a dance choreographer. Kristina, now a middle-class NYC artist concerned about the environment, has a sailor lover named Raoul. The film, a collage work, an essay film, a fictional narrative and a documentary all rolled into one, is one of the most important independent American feminists films made during the 1970's.

Rainer's landmark film is a meditation on ambivalence that plays with cliché and the conventions of soap opera while telling the story of a woman whose sexual dissatisfaction masks an enormous anger.

Rainer's first film, Hand Movie, was shot by fellow dancer William Davis when Rainer was confined to a hospital bed, recovering from major surgery and unable to dance. The resulting five minutes of footage is a sustained close-up shot of Rainer's hand against a grey background as it stretches and contracts, bends and points, performing the kinds of everyday, quotidian movements that characterize her pioneering minimalist choreography. (Ubu)

A stark and revealing examination of romantic alliances, "Lives of Performers" examines the dilemma of a man who can't choose between two women and makes them both suffer. Originally part of a dance performance choreographed by Rainer. (imdb)

A volleyball is rolled into the frame and comes to rest. Two legs in sneakers, seen from the knees down, enter the frame and stand beside it. Cut to new angle, same characters and actions. (imdb)

Two middle-aged women, from very different backgrounds, become lovers and process lesbian identity in a culture that glorifies youth and heterosexual romance.