Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman is a new documentary series by Jennifer Fox. She asks many questions and tries to get answers by interviewing women around the world. Told in 6 chapters, you can catch all of them at the Aero in Santa Monica this month.

One of the questions: "What is this strange modern female life we are living?"

I contemplate this lazily pretty much every evening watching Sex & The City reruns and trying to figure out if I'm more Carrie than Miranda. Recently I've experimented molding myself into a more girlfriend friendly model by curbing the shoe shopping fantasies and turning to modern sitcom wives, the ones that don't complain about their fuck buddies and might even actually have to budget their paychecks to feed the kids rather than their Chrsitian Dior habit. I don't idolize them for their housewifey-ness. At first glance the little domestic scenes with a laugh track set us all back twenty years where we heteros might as well sleep in separate twin beds.

After years of mind-numbing after-school syndicated bliss I know I've always been attracted to the moxie of say a Carrie Heffernan who get away with criticizing her oafish husband just to end every night with a kiss and a content smile deep in the habit of domesticity. Even the radiating motherhood of a Jill Taylor is admirable as she still glows surrounded by sons and men who act the same age. These women know how to stand their ground in the role of the straight-woman and accept their partners for all their doofy faults. How comforting to know there are pretty women out there for the loveable fuck-ups.

Numerous papers have been written on the role of wives in television and this is not meant to start a debate, it's just where my pop-culture soaked mind goes to when a filmmaker like Fox starts to ask good questions. ..."Why are women's real lives hidden?".... "Why is female sexuality taboo?" ... "Why do Charlotte and Samantha appall and entice me all at once?" ...

That last question is mine.

Jennifer Fox will be at the screening of the first two chapters tonight to answer more questions. In Chapter 1 Fox turns the camera on herself and her two relationships, one an affair with a married South African, and the other her Swiss boyfriend, who she's mot so sure she's really attracted to. Then she glances into the lives of her girlfriends, also middle-aged women, in various significant-other stages from divorce to multiple make-up sex. Fox attempts to define a familiar condition in our modern lexicon - the "commitment-phobe". I can't wait to see the results.

Chapter 2 is all about the Biological Clock. No matter our age I think we can all identify to Fox's predicament. She's lived a life of sexual freedom and discovery but has she missed out on not conceiving, that purely unique woman thing? Not a ground-breaking feminist debate, I know. The chapters seem to simplify it all at first but it is the level of intimacy a documentary that turns the show on itself gets to explore that makes Fox's work seem so intriguing.

Chapters 3 & 4 pick up next week also in double feature mode, and then the following Wednesday concludes the series in Chapters 5 & 6. The Aero hosts more screenings throughout the next few weeks, but taking a Wednesday night off for the next three weeks feels like just the sort of workshop a middle-aged woman would take, so I'm going to try it too. Those baby boomer feminists can't hog all the spotlight nor the Swiss boyfriends.


Wednesday, Sep. 5 7:30pm
Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman
Chapter 1 - No Fear of Flying: Living the Free Life
Chapter 2 - Test Piloting: Tick Tock the Bilogical Clock

Wednesday, Sep. 12 7:30pm
Chapter 3 - Experiencing Turbulance: The Price of Sexual Freedom
Chapter 4 - Crash and Burn: The Things All Women Share

Wednesday, Sep. 19 7:30pm
Chapter 5 - Walking Away From The Wreck: The Secret of Male Power
Chapter 6 - Breaking The Sound Barrier, Female Life Backwards: New Technology for the 'New Woman'


Aero Theater
1328 Montana Ave. at 14th Street
Santa Monica, 90403
$10 general admission
check American Cinematheque for more showtimes

Labels: events, film, television