THE HOT BOX
dir. Joe Viola, 1972
United States/Philippines. 85 min.
In English.

MONDAY, MARCH 4 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 16 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MARCH 22 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, MARCH 26 – 7:30 PM

Four American nurses working in the republic of San Rosario enter a hellish nightmare when they’re kidnapped by guerilla army to provide medical assistance in their fight against an oppressive government regime. Tormented by every man that crosses their path, the four women must band together in the dense jungle in pursuit of one shared goal: survival.

Prior to her collaborations with Pam Grier, Margaret Markov had teamed up with Roger Corman and writer/producer/director team, Joe Viola and Jonathan Demme, for this unorthodox blend of the WIP and similarly trending “nurseploitation” genres (see: last year’s Stephanie Rothman program). Markov stars as Lynn, one of the captured nurses who begins to sympathize with the revolutionaries once she witnesses firsthand the government’s poor treatment of civilians. As with BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA, Viola and Demme foreground the politics inherent to the film’s WIP themes and banana republic setting, placing the women’s fight for liberation squarely within the context of an anti-capitalist struggle (a theme that some viewers may recognize as a recurring component of Jonathan “A luta continua” Demme’s later life and career).