Sandra Lahire

Sandra Lahire (1950–2001) was a central figure in the experimental feminist filmmaking that emerged in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lahire studied Philosophy at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (BA), Fine Art Film at St Martin's School of Art, London, (1984) and Film & Environmental Media at the Royal College of Art, London (MA 1986). It was at St Martin's that she entered the world of independent film, working with artists including Malcolm Le Grice, Lis Rhodes, Tina Keane, and studying alongside the film-maker Isaac Julien.

Her poetic short films were made in the context of the London Film-Makers’ Cooperative which “developed a new form of mixed-genre film-making [….] which marked a new stage in experimental film in Britain”, according to Jacqueline Rose. Of this generation Rose has described Lahire as “one of the most gifted, innovative and bold experimental film-makers”.

Her first film, ‘’Arrows’’, 1984, was a meditation on anorexia, a subject that threaded throughout her work. In 1986 she made ‘’Terminals’’, ‘’Edge’’, and ‘’Plutonium Blonde’’. In 1987, working with film-makers Jean Matthee and Anna Thew, Lahire made ‘’Uranium Hex’’. ‘’Serpent River’’,1989, explored the toxic effects of a uranium mining corporation, owned by Rio Tinto Zinc, on the residents and inhabitants of Serpent River and Elliott Lake in Ontario, Canada. In 1991 she made ‘’Lady Lazarus’’, the first part of a trilogy ‘’Living on Air’’, which was inspired by the poetry of Sylvia Plath and which she made across the span of nine years. The film incorporated an interview with Plath given just before she died. The lead of ‘’Living on Air’’ was played by fellow film-maker Sarah Turner. ‘’Eerie’’ followed in 1992. The second part of the Plath trilogy, ‘’Night Dances’’, 1995, presented Hebrew inscriptions on worn gravestones and allusions to Yom Kippur through which Lahire explored Jewish aspects of her identity. ‘’Persephone’’ and ‘’Knife Born’’ were made in 1997-98, with the final of the Plath trilogy, ‘’Johnny Panic’’, appearing in 1999.

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