Where is she now?

It's been two years since the last scenes were shot in 5 GIRLS. Find out how Corrie is faring in this interview with her.

P.O.V.: What have you been doing since 5 GIRLS completed shooting?

Corrie: I'm still in California, working at an independent bookstore. I am thinking about going back to school in the fall of 2002.

P.O.V.: Discuss some of the challenges you experienced during the making of 5 GIRLS and how you have dealt with them.

Corrie: I struggled with a lot of bullshit as an activist in high school. For instance -- my junior year, there were Nazis organizing the youth on campus. It was a major struggle to organize an anti-racist, anti-homophobic movement there. While I don't believe that it's anybody's business how one expresses one's sexuality, my bisexuality seemed to be a fine conversation piece. Everyone seemed to be confused --including myself! Since I moved to California to go to Mills College, I've been able to take my own life less seriously and really commit myself to political activity in my community. I'm still struggling with a lot of stuff with my Dad, but I'm not letting any of that get me down.

P.O.V.: Please talk about your interest in politics and activism.

Corrie: Being my mother's daughter, I have always been very sensitive. In high school, however, sensitivity can be crippling, especially when you are the target of hate speech. As a "pink-haired dyke freak," I was no exception, and this could have easily killed me. But beyond what I experienced as an individual, I also was becoming extremely sensitive to how the world works. When I moved from a very sheltering suburb of Chicago to Peoria, after my parents' divorce, I was very confused about the poverty I encountered, the backwards ideas such as racism, sexism, and homophobia, which had never been this out in the open for me before then. I became extremely aware of social contradictions, especially the gap between the rich and the poor. But I couldn't see how this was connected to racism, sexism, nationalism, or homophobia. All I had was punk rock, but I needed more -- a plan for action to change society and empower people to have solidarity between men and women, blacks and whites, gays and straight folks.

I only lived in Peoria for a year, but my confusion actually became more acute when I moved back up to the Chicago area, this time to a posh suburb. My sophomore year at New Trier High School, I was lucky to have a history teacher who taught us about many different political ideas and darker sides of history that few teachers would tell us about. That is where I first got an honest definition of socialism and worker's power -- tools to fight back. That's probably why I was so open to getting involved in the International Socialist Organization (ISO) when I ran into them at a Take Back the Night rally against sexual assault on the Northwestern University campus in the spring of 1997.

The reason socialism makes so much sense to me is because it sees class as the main divide in capitalism and exploitation and division as the causes of racism, sexism, nationalism, and homophobia. It also sees the working class as the main agent of social change and recognizes the importance of winning reforms to make our lives better, but the ultimate goal is revolution -- to rid the world of corporate greed, war, and all these divisions. But it's not enough to just think about how the world works -- you have to do something about it. Capitalism has developed the means to create this society, we can have socialism -- we can democratically make sure that we have good schools, satisfying work, child-care, enough food and housing. That means fighting back every day against police brutality and racism; for abortion rights (and all rights for women to control their bodies); to stop globalization; to stop the building of prisons; for universal health care; for a social safety net. I am inspired every day to fight capitalism because one day I want to live in a world free of oppression and exploitation. The good news, as Karl Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto, is that, we "have nothing to lose but our chains...we have a world to win!"