Episode 47: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night with Dr. Rebecca Gibson

Oct 27, 2024

On this month's episode of The Sociologist's Dojo Podcast, return guest, Dr. Rebecca Gibson and I analyze Ana lily Amirpour's debut film: the goth girl German expressionist Iranian vampire spaghetti western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. We talk about fangs, feminism and bloody fun (with more than a few tangents) Enjoy! Happy Halloween!

Production Notes:

Intro: 0:00-3:03

 

Catch-up with Dr. Gibson's work 3:04-22:23

• Sex with Robots Conference Update
• Cyborgs Ethics and the Matrix discussion and Meeting Keanu

Basics of 'A Girl': 22:24-45:32

• Dr. Gibson's Experience with Amirpour's work
• Plot Synopsis 
• Genre Amalgamation 
• Trivia 
• Crowd Funding/Fan Focus Group Aside

 Historical Context 45:33-81:43

• First Screening Experience 
• Cinematography Aside (Fang Shot)
• Truncated history of US Iranian relations 
• The Use of that history as an atmospheric backdrop
• Is the film too "Western"?
• Influence on the Horror genre 
• Physical Media Aside 
• The Film's Legacy -10 years later 

Social Analysis 81:44-114:35

• The Film's Feminist Flare 
• The Rape Culture 
• The Pimp's death scene 
• The Singularity of Characters 
• The 'Unending' (Men aside)
• 'A Girl' vs 'Buffy' Dualling Feminisms?
• The Film's Vampiric Allegory compared to other Vampire Content

Outtro: 114:36-125:49

• Curating a Vampire Themed Film Fest 
• Plugs 
• The Dojo's Future Essays and Upcoming Episodes 
• Post Credit scathing reviews of Megaopolis and Joker 2

All Clips used under Fair Use

Links

• Dr. Gibson's prolific Work 
• Dr. Gibson on Twitter 
• The Film's soundtrack available on Youtube
• A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night essay on the Blog 
• Episode 17: The Matrix Franchise 
• The Sociologist's Dojo on Twitter and letterboxd