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29 Jan – 8 Feb 2026

Work

Rachel Reichman | USA | 1996 | 92' | | IFFR 1997

Jenny, a white girl in her mid-twenties, is a school leaver whose everyday existence does not look very rosy. She manoeuvres listlessly on the labour market in economic hard times. For each job interview she invents a new personality, but it doesn’t help. She tries to escape the vicious circle of the daily grind by throwing herself into a confusing tangle of sex and unrequited love. Jennie is obsessed by June, the black lesbian girl next door, and uses this new impulse as an antidote to her marriage to the conventional, paternalistic yet well-intending husband Will.Reichman’s self-assured directing and cutting evoke the rhythm of life in a remote spot in the American countryside. The two women are subtle and tough, and much attention has been paid to everyday details. The title refers to the problems of the working class in small towns where the timber mills no longer work and the shops are deserted, but means more. Rachel Reichman: ‘Love is work, work is work, marriage is work.’

Film details

Country of production
USA
Year
1996
Festival edition
IFFR 1997
Length
92"
Medium/Format
16mm

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