My Name Is Andrea

Pratibha Parmar and Shaheen Haq have made a profound and beautiful film. "My Name is Andrea" took me on a journey into not only a courageous and inspiring thinker and public figure, but also deep into the the dark heart of misogyny and what is required to wrest us from it. Those who think they "know" Andrea Dworkin because impatient and lazy men have misquoted her and extracted salacious lines from her texts have it all wrong. Through creative hybrid filmmaking, solid direction and attentive production design, Parmar and Haq take us into Andrea's world, heart, and mind.

As a women's studies/ feminist studies major in the '80's it was impossible to miss the writing of Andrea Dworkin. I was then and am now pro-sex, sexuality, sexually fluid, and have friends/ lovers who are or were sex workers, including people who made pornography. I left college feeling that Dworkin was opposed to women's sexual freedom and power in controlling our income and labor when it was connected to sex work or pornography. This was not the case based on this film's incredible archive, interviews, and style of storytelling. I feel my college education about Dworkin was wrong. This film allowed me entrance into her writings (the film is made up of her writing over the year, she is her own narrator). Her consciousness and questioning of the intersectional nature of oppression are profound! Congratulations to Director Pratibha Parma and Producer Shaheen Hag and everyone involved!! This is a must-see. Be ready for this call to action. My eyes burned from my angry tears that so little has changed from the past 30 years that Dworkin was writing. We have so much to do. Perhaps this film is a bit of a map for that continued needed change.

I attended the San Francisco screening and left amazed. My Name is Andrea is truly impressive. You attempted an audacious approach and you more than pulled it off. The film is brilliant. Several of the dramatized scenes are quite beautiful, and you struck the right balance between elliptical and explicit images. In addition, you didn't shy away from controversies. And along with the drama and tragedy, you captured her sense of humor!

One of the best docs I've seen this year-an incredible achievement. Dworkin's story is not an easy one to tell, and Parmar delivers a powerful, engaging, complex and masterful look at the author's life, work and activism. Now more than ever, the world needs MY NAME IS ANDREA.

This film is incredible, an elegantly unfurling incendiary. An honoring of Andrea Dworkin and a reminder that all of our voices, our perspectives, are not just gifts but designedly, powerfully, necessary.

Thank you to the collaborative partnership of filmmaker Pratibha Parmar and producer Shaheen Haq for your passion in art form.

For integrating this treasured archive with beautifully shot scenes. For showing a full life - Andrea's life, its nuance, and its impact. I have a newfound curiosity and appreciation for Andrea's grit, tenderness, compassion, and indefatigable fight.

I hope it gets the wide release it so deserves!