HAND ON THE PULSE
Saturday, Oct. 19, 2 p.m.
Goethe Institut, $9
It’s about time someone documented the founding of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and Joyce P. Warshow’s documentary fills that void. The Brooklyn-based clearinghouse of lesbian lore is the site where many a student has pieced together information for many a paper, and many an armchair anthropologist has learned everything she or he could want to know about the origins of Sapphic solidarity. But alongside the rich material about the development of the community institution is the presentation of its co-founder, Joan Nestle, and her story. Much of that story stems from the sexually liberated, working class feminist who was not just a mainstay within a movement, but also an unapologetic author of erotica. "My life has taught me," Nestle reads early in the film, "that touch is never to be taken for granted — that a woman reaching for my breast or parting my legs is never a common thing." Neither, it must be said, is Joan Nestle or the herstorical empire she helped create. — Kristina Campbell
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