TERMINAL ISLAND
dir. Stephanie Rothman, 1973
United States. 88 min.
In English.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – 7:30 PM

In the wake of a Supreme Court decision that deemed the death penalty unconstitutional, California passes an initiative that designates San Bruno Island as a dumping ground for dangerous convicts, free to do whatever they want except leave. When a new group of women convicts is taken to the island prison they must fight to protect themselves against the iron-fisted rule of the tyrannical Bobby and take control of the island for themselves.

Ironically, the film that seems like it would be most outside of Rothman’s wheelhouse— a provocative action-thriller with touches of women-in-prison and blaxploitation fare— wound up arguably being her most explicitly feminist film: It’s plot centering around a group of women’s literal fight for agency within a sado-patriarchal dystopia.