Anger

1986, 20 min, color, sound

Anger is a riveting portrait of an emotion. Commissioned by German television, this startling document is part of The Seven Deadly Sins, a work in which each "sin" was depicted by a female filmmaker. Cohen began by placing an advertisement in The Village Voice, asking, "Angry? What makes you angry?" The intensely personal, often shocking stories she elicits from her respondents are unified by an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and disenfranchisement from society. A rape survivor bitterly describes how her boyfriend left her shortly after she was attacked; a suspended New York City police detective vents his anger against the department that ended his career; an ex-alcoholic boasts of murdering four people; a transsexual weeps as she describes the discrimination that followed her decision to become a woman. Seated in front of Cohen's stationary, unflinching camera, the individuals confess their most intimate and raw expressions of anger.

Camera: Joel Gold. A ZDF Production.