ABSTRACT
Anna Biller began making shorts in 1994 after studying for a BA in art at UCLA, and an MFA in film and video at the California Institute of the Arts. It was the originality of her feminist revision of the sexploitation genre in Viva that first signalled her potential to be labelled a cult auteur, a category which has been male-dominated. Biller’s initiation into cult cinema might appear to be premature or at least accelerated, such cinema is often defined by its rich afterlife among fans. Born in California to a Japanese American mother and an American father, Biller’s combined training in art and film is apparent from her distinctive stylistic approach. Her racial identity also influences her approach to gender and feminism, including the decision to cast herself in the central role in Viva. Pictured in the extravagant headpiece she wears in Viva, Biller appears on the cover of David Andrews’s Theorizing Art Cinemas: Foreign, Cult, Avant-Garde, and Beyond.
