Margaret Lazarus

Lazarus has dedicated her career to combining documentary filmmaking and political activism, making films that explore a wide range of social justice and women's issues. Her short film Defending Our Lives, a documentary made with her partner Renner Wunderlich, about women incarcerated for killing their abusers, won an Academy Award in 1994.

Divided into three sections, Before It Kills Us All begins with a gruesome chronicle of violence—from the horrors of war to police violence against Black and Brown bodies to the willful destruction of our planet and its wildlife—all wrought by the hands of men. The middle section offers a counterpoint in the form of historical footage of women’s resistance including protesting suffragettes, women in Liberia who demonstrated to end the country’s civil wars, a Women’s March on Washington, and even a section from the subversive 1968 film The Girls by Mai Zetterling. In the third and final section, Lazarus offers the possibility of hope as traditional, male-dominated power structures are replaced by communities that nurture and value empathy. Throughout the work, which is intended to be a multichannel installation, Lazarus weaves images of dance, including footage of pioneering dancer and choreographer Anna Halprin, as a metaphor for healing and an expression of the human potential to change. (video, 16:41 mins.)

Watch a recent conversation between Lazarus and Ohio State Associate Professor and Roy Lichtenstein Chair of Studio Art Carmen Winant filmed on the occasion of this screening.