A noted modern dance choreographer of the 1960s (she co-founded the influential Judson Dance Theater in 1962), the openly lesbian Yvonne Rainer turned her attention to feature films in the early 70s, subsequently emerging as a critically lauded practitioner of politically challenging, avant-garde cinema.

Rainer began integrating slides and short films into her dance work as early as 1968, and made her feature debut with "Lives of Performers" (1972), an outgrowth of her dance background. A politically committed artist, her film work evolved away from the influences of the so-called American