“LADY U SEND ME YR MOVIE:” constructing Joanie 4 Jackie’s feminist distribution network

Abstract

Joanie 4 Jackie was a U.S.-based women’s video distribution network begun by artist Miranda July that operated from 1995 to 2007. Every woman who submitted to the network would be included on a 10-video compilation VHS that was sent back to each participant, along with a zine listing filmmaker statements and contact information. This article focuses on this distribution model as a site for understanding how media distribution is tied to feminist community-building. I first show the ways that Joanie 4 Jackie drew on the distribution infrastructure of feminist punk subculture riot grrrl — including robust systems for the circulation of music and zines — to jumpstart this video network. I discuss the ways that Joanie 4 Jackie enacted a feminist distributive imagination, creating inventive modes of distribution to counteract unequally distributed money, power, technology, and visibility in filmmaking along gendered lines. In turn, I argue for a consideration of a feminist distributive imaginary, or the hopeful possibilities for both self and community that Joanie 4 Jackie’s modes of distribution prompted–whether or not one submitted a video for distribution.