Milwaukee Film’s program “Cinematic Sisterhood,” made possible by a grant from the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee, continues with director Rachel Talalay welcomed for the weekend of Oct. 24-25, 2025.
Two feature entries from her filmography were included in the series, shown at the Oriental Theater. A 30th anniversary screening of Tank Girl was shown on Oct. 24th at 7:00 p.m. on 35-millimeter film. The next day, a showing of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare was presented on Oct. 25th at 8:00 p.m.
In addition, “An Afternoon with the Queen: A Rachel Talalay Retrospective” was a special program at 2:00 p.m. on the 25th, centering around a seated discussion with Talalay concerning her varied career, and was followed by a screening of one of her best-known television episodes. This debate was moderated by Cris Siqueira, co-owner of the bookstore café and art space Lion’s Tooth in Bay View.
“This event is one-part masterclass and one-part cinematic joy as we bring small-screen projects to the big screen,” as stated by Robyn Ehrlich, Milwaukee Film’s Communications & Public Relations Coordinator, in a press release.
American filmmaker and producer Rachel Talalay was one of the few women to break into the boys’ club of genre filmmaking. She faced enormous obstacles and severe studio interference to create the work she wanted to.
This is especially true in the case of the 1995 film Tank Girl, based on the British comic of the same moniker created by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett.
You might recognize Hewlett’s name, as he is the co-creator, along with Damon Albarn, of the virtual band Gorillaz. He is the visionary behind the design of the band members and originally illustrated the Tank Girl character.
The feature film, inspired by the cult popularity of the comic in the late 80s and early 90s, is set in 2033. The overall story follows Lori Petty in the title role as she trudges through a drought-ravaged and dystopian Australia, battling an oppressive and tyrannical villain who is the head of a corporation controlling what is left of Earth’s scarce water.
The creation of this movie brought together several recognizable names in both punk and popular culture. The director herself, Rachel Talalay, first entered the film industry as a production assistant on John Waters’ 1981 film Polyester, having production credits for Hairspray and Cry-Baby as well.
She is the only female director of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Iggy Pop, often referred to as the “Godfather of Punk” because of his ‘60s role as the iconically abrasive bare-chested frontman of the Stooges, has an ephemeral cameo in the film as a sleazoid pedophile who, fortunately, gets gored by a gadget.
American rapper Ice-T has a prominent role as the mutant kangaroo and human hybrid T-Ripper. He is a super soldier who helps Tank Girl and Jet Girl, played by Naomi Watts, rally against the Water & Power (W&P) Corporation.
Courtney Love is credited for the film as “Executive Music Coordinator Courtney Love-Cobain,” assembling the alternative rock ammunition-packed soundtrack. This adjoining album includes songs by her band Hole, Icelandic artist Björk (originally slated to play Jet Girl), and the bands Veruca Salt, Portishead, Bush and Belly.
Talalay selected Catherine Hardwicke as the production designer for the off-the-walls picture, who went on to direct “Thirteen” and “Twilight.”
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is the American production and distribution company that released Tank Girl. 1995 was a unique box-office period bulging with campiness for the studio, as they also released the exploitative cult classic Showgirls that same year, alongside Hackers.
Despite the kitschy nature of the pieces released that year by the powerful studio, Talalay faced constant obstacles in her effort to get this zany film to the finish line. The executive who had initially been championing the project had died by the time the movie was in production. Furthermore, the replacement head decidedly could not fathom the featured progressive storyline, as he was a self-professed anti-feminist.
According to the director, the studio threatened to remove the filmmaker from the production essentially every five minutes. Despite the disappointing interference from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, her own lawyer told her to do everything in her power not to get fired, so that she could at least stay attached to the project.
“Tank Girl is about breaking every rule,” said Talalay during the pre-screening introduction and discussion. Naturally, various parts of the film challenged the male executives of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
As stated by Talalay, studio heads did not want the minds of young girls to be supposedly corrupted by depictions of sexual liberation, which the executives perceived through the way that Lori Petty’s Tank Girl pretty much just did and wore whatever she wanted.
This ferocious character stood in sharp contrast to other female comic book heroes depicted in film form, who are often dressed for the beholding of a male gaze and overtly sexualized.
Talalay was pressured by studio heads to add a foil plotline at the beginning of the film that would cause Tank Girl to be motivated to fight against the oppressive head of the Water & Power Corporation. As a result, her boyfriend is killed by W&P troops.
The director talked during the post-screening discussion about how these consistent insistences by outside influences deeply frustrated her. She wondered why the female lead had to experience trauma within the plot in order to be emboldened to resist a symbol of patriarchal corporate power.
Rachel Talalay was ahead of her time in that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio heads could not handle this film, which belonged in a different realm of unconventionality and alternative culture.
Rachel Talalay also directed the sixth installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.”
The Nightmare on Elm Street series is an American supernatural slasher media franchise created by Wes Craven, the original work of the series being the classic 1984 film. Each plot hinges on the appearance of the fictional character Freddy Krueger, the malevolent phantom of a child murderer who had been burned to death by the parents of his numerous victims.
There are nine canonical films in the franchise, with the 1991 American slasher film “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare” being the sixth entry.
New Line Productions, Inc. is an American film and production company that often attributes its growth and success as a studio to the success of this series, which they partly own in addition to the estate of Wes Craven.
Rachel Talalay, with her cult status and cemented attachment to the wildly popular horror franchise, is an important genre filmmaker who was able to enjoy mainstream success despite the uphill battles she often fought as a female director.