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Sing, O Barren Woman

Susan Mogul

2000 00:10:35 United StatesEnglishColorStereo4:3

Description

Sing, O Barren Woman, part documentary part music video, satirizes and celebrates a taboo subject--voluntary childlessness. Susan Mogul gives voice to ten women who are childless by choice (or default) as they come out as non-mothers speaking and "singing" about the stereotypes of the "barren" woman. "Never mentioned in public or given a voice, we’re invisible women who made a provocative choice." These various refrains crescendo to Susan’s humorous song of sexual innuendo "Baby, I Still Can Conceive." This is the first U.S. film or video on voluntary childlessness.

"Giving voice to ten women who chose not to have children, Mogul's video simultaneously offers a hilarious and poignant meditation on all manner of life choices and the necessity of living with their consequences." --David Pagel, Los Angeles Times

"I was truly amazed at how much wit, insight, creativity, artistic imagination, spunk, beauty and fun you could wrap into 11 minutes! Bravo!” --Elaine T. May, author of “Barren in the Promised Land” 

Funded by a COLA Fellowship, a grant that honors mid-career artists.

About Susan Mogul

Since 1973 artist and filmmaker Susan Mogul has developed a body of work that is autobiographical, diaristic, and ethnographic. Her work addresses the human dilemma of self in relationship to family, community and the culture at large. Mogul’s videos of the early 1970s, as well as her recent documentaries, are often featured in exhibitions, publications, and college courses that examine the histories of video art, feminist art, and contemporary documentary.

“The conflict in forging one’s own identity in relation to a group — be it family or the culture at large — has been an underlying theme in my work. I was revealing attempts to define my self-image through humorous autobiographical anecdotes. In them I measured myself against influential role models.” 
— Susan Mogul