The Punk Singer

Although musician Kathleen Hanna has appeared in other documentaries—including 2010's Who Took the Bomp—filmmaker Sini Anderson's The Punk Singer is the first to focus on her life story, covering Hanna's years in Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and her current outfit, the Julie Ruin (in which she has reunited with Bikini Kill bassist Kathi Wilcox). As a student at Evergreen State College in Washington state, Hanna combined her interests in feminism and punk rock, producing politically-oriented fanzines and launching the confrontational outfit Bikini Kill, a key figure in the riot grrrl movement. When she needed money, Hanna also worked as a stripper—for which she took some hits, although she never claimed to be contradiction-free. Hanna ultimately inspired other young women to speak their minds about body image and sexual abuse. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain even took a phrase she spray-painted on his wall to the top of the charts: “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit.” After Le Tigre called it quits, however, Hanna fell silent for several years, which confused her fans. Anderson attributes her disappearance to chronic Lyme disease (a condition the director shares). Now largely under control, Hanna has returned to the road and the recording studio. Aside from Hanna and her band mates, other speakers include Joan Jett, Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein, and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, who introduced Hanna to her husband, Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys. Drawing from a wealth of archival audiovisual material, Anderson makes a persuasive case that today's music scene wouldn't be the same without the efforts of this unstoppable force. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)