Ani DiFranco carves out a career all her own in the new trailer for 1-800-ON-HER-OWN, a new documentary about the feminist punk-folk pioneer and Righteous Babe Records founder.
The clip offers a condensed but compelling look at the film, starting with a barrage of archival clips that show how DiFranco navigated the early days of her career, contending with a Nineties industry and media landscape that was often confounded by, if not outright hostile towards, everything she stood for and represented. “Oh, Ani DiFranco, she’s the folk singer, she’s the lesbian, she’s the this, she’s the that — how do you feel about that?” DiFranco herself quips in an old clip. “Whatever.”
Elsewhere, the trailer touches on the founding of Righteous Babe, the “woman-run non-corporate queer-happy” label, and the spaces DiFranco aimed to carve out in music for women. It also finds her contemplating her present moment in light of all that’s in her past. “How does somebody like me move towards 60 like this?” she asks with a laugh. “This is going to be interesting.”
1-800-ON-HER-OWN was directed by Dana Flor and will have its world premiere tonight, June 10, as part of the Tribeca Film Festival the OKX Theater at BMCC TPAC. DiFranco will be on-hand as well to deliver a special performance. (Two more Tribeca screenings are scheduled for June 11 and June 13.)
In a statement, Flor said she was drawn to make a doc about DiFranco “not just because she is an unheralded pioneer with a remarkable life, but because hers is so undeniably a story of our time.”
She continued: “In this post-Roe world, with the foundations of democracy and civil rights on the very thinnest of ice, it’s more important than ever to recognize women like Ani, who has spent her lifetime ferociously fighting hate and misogyny, often at the expense of her personal life and career. For the last 30+ years, Ani has stayed true to herself, as a musician and activist, no matter what the cost. And while her odyssey is singularly hers, her story will resonate for anyone who has ever pushed against a glass ceiling, been marginalized or simply been told they’re too loud, too weird or too uncompromising.”