I'm in the middle of listening to Kathleen's self-narrated audiobook "Rebel Girl," and thought I'd supplement this experience with the 2013 documentary. I am her age, educated at an East Coast alternative college, feminist and had a traumatic childhood. I worked for Planned Parenthood (early nineties) and was an HIV counselor on the East Coast inner cities at the epidemics height. I also lived in the Seattle/Tacoma/Puget Sound area on and off throughout 1991-1999 and lived in NY/NJ during same years as her. Similar orbit.

I remembered hearing about Riot Grrl feminism and thought they were so far behind the East Coast. I was like, "wait we did all this stuff already....fully clothed." In the book she mentions she chose to "strip" to pay her college tuition due to lack of available work. She also reveals that she was really more of "an exotic dancer who kept her top on due to her younger age." I admire her grit and determination in those early years when she was basically orphaned by her family of origin. She never took no for an answer. She admits to requesting that her Olympia roommate leave the door unlocked so she could get in late, that same night her roommate was violently attacked which propelled her to act up and stand up against Domestic Violence. I enjoyed the early archival footage of Bikini Kill but wish we heard more from Tobi Vail, Kathy and the male guitarist. Another reviewer mentioned the Courtney Love Lollapalooza incident. Courtney allegedly claims Kathleen made unprovoked derogatory comments to Love regarding the whereabouts of Frances Bean. Neither one of them is known for holding back. The documentary took a left turn for me and lost some integrity when she decided to move to New York with just $400, but in the same breath, she was fortunate enough to be able to live rent free with her {wealthy rock star}boyfriend. She then married "for health insurance " and life became easier with his money. Of course it did. Then came the health crisis which she had so much emotional and financial support shepherding her through she just had to focus on herself. How quickly we move on. As one imdb reviewer before me mentioned, in so many words, that she had forgotten about all the women "still without" that were some of her biggest early supporters. She was now a wealthy white woman. Privileged. I enjoyed Kim Gordon's walk on as she is forever a careful, class act, and Hanna's brief reflection on her friendship with Cobain. The stars aligned with that one. No one can dispute she had some enviable great timing while living in the Olympia zeitgeist of that time.

One of the many good things documentaries can do is make you aware of a person, a movement, a moment that you somehow overlooked, and help you realize just how important and how wonderful that person (or art form or whatever) was and/or is.

So it was for me with "The Punk Singer". Not growing up a big punk fan, I missed out on Kathleen Hanna and Bikini Kill, and the Riot Grrrl movement. My loss. This angry, joyful, tough, articulate, crazy, sexy, insightful, funny, political artist was a major force in feminism and social politics, and if I came late to the party I'm grateful to the film for making the introduction now.

The film can be uneven – some (not all) of the talking head interviews with others aren't very interesting - when compared to the performance footage of Hannah, or her ability to analyze her work and it's meaning in her own interviews – but I ended up inspired by the woman and the artist, and inspiration these days is in short supply.

Excellent documentary from director Sini Anderson on Bikini Kill/Le Tigre front woman Kathleen Hanna, who dropped out of the music biz in 2005 after contracting late-stage Lyme disease (but who kept her disappearance mysterious, hardly disclosing her illness to anyone). A rage-filled college girl from Olympia, Washington, Hanna was a rabid feminist with a troubled childhood whose jagged fanzine art and spoken word rants eclipsed into musical genius with her first band, Bikini Kill. Although not for the faint-of-heart, Bikini Kill (three females, one male) were instrumental in leading the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 1990s. Testimonials from Hanna's peers (including members of Bratmobile and Sleater-Kinney, Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth and Joan Jett, who produced Bikini Kill's most proficient EP) help fill in some of the personality gaps, yet when Anderson just allows Hanna to speak--and when the musician opens up, she's quite candid--the results are fascinating, most especially for fans. Also interesting: the potentially-explosive paradox of a young, hardcore feminist who finds true love (and eventually marriage) with a male kindred spirit, Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys. *** from ****