Barbara Loden’s Wanda Returns to Theaters

Rarely seen since its 1970 premiere, Barbara Loden’s sole directorial achievement, Wanda, has nonetheless been profoundly influential on generations of artists and filmmakers. Next month, it’s finally coming back to screens in a new restoration, starting on July 20 with a week run at the Metrograph in New York and then rolling out to cities across the country. An uncompromising work of American independent cinema, shot in an intensely intimate vérité style, Wanda stars Loden (who also wrote the film) as a listless young mother in Pennsylvania coal country who escapes her domestic prison, loses custody of her children, then shacks up with a cantankerous outlaw who ropes her into his next criminal scheme. 

For a preview of this deeply personal masterwork, check out this brand-new trailer. And stay tuned for more information about the upcoming showtimes at Metrograph.