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The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts (1991)

Directed by Lynne Sachs

Overview

The winner of numerous festival prizes, this early work by Lynne Sachs is a provocative film essay on women’s perspectives on their bodies in a “man’s world.” It touches on everything from the female form’s depiction in Renaissance art to the school of 19th century “scientific” thought equating “abnormal” physiognomy with criminality. This adventurous collage also features the filmmaker’s own diaristic recollections (notably of being fitted for a diaphragm by a cold, intimidating doctor), poetical staged sequences, other women’s audio testimonies, an old classroom instructional reel about menstruation, prose by Gertrude Stein and feminine “ideals” like the undulating young woman performing in fish-tail costumes at Florida’s kitschy Weeki-Wachee Springs “Underwater Mermaid Theater.” - Dennis Harvey

Length 30 minutes

Actors

Lynne Sachs | Dana Sachs | Sarah Beams | Amelia Dunne | Barbara Frank | Stacey Gilbertson | Tashwanna Harrell | Amelia Large | LaDonna McKinney | Leslie Alperin | Gigi DeRoux | Irish Higgens | Susan Meyers | Julie Terwilliger