The Judy Spots

In my opinion, this is one of Sadie Benning's best, primarily because it epitomized her place within the riot grrrl culture that emerged in the early 1990s.

Comprised of five short vignettes about Judy, a troubled teenager made of paper-maché, "The Judy Spots", were originally brief video 'spots' shown on MTV in 1998. When Judy (voiced by Benning) gets depressed she cries, and the sky rains tears, sharing her brief outburst. Judy's alienation is further experienced at her drive-thru fast food job where she convinces herself she really is a 'people person'. If she's such a 'people person', why is her fragile psychic state threatening to eclipse her cardboard cut-out milieu? When Judy later has a nightmare, a series of surreal images pass through her head, spill out into her bedroom and eventually seem to pre-empt an argument she has later with her band mate (voiced by Kathleen Hanna best known from the grunge grrrl band Bikini Kill). They fight on the phone and Judy quits the band. In the next 'spot' Judy returns to band practice and sings her new song. The band is joined by Barbie groupies who thrash their synthetic hair around. Judy, it seems, triumphs on stage and screen.

A wow of a short film that is up there with Todd Haynes' outlaw classic "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story".