MsTaken Identity, 1985

Made to coincide with International Youth Year, MsTaken Identity is 26 minutes of fun, as we see young women doing it for themselves. A fast-moving video in which seven young women’s groups use an engaging combination of raps, skits, animation, cartoons, home movies and songs – all written and performed by the young women’s themselves – to explore and celebrate their views of being young and female in 1985. The result is a stylish mix of politics and entertainment: young women’s magazines meet pop videos to create their own combination. MsTaken Identity was commissioned by the Greater London Council Women’s Committee and Channel 4 TV, was broadcast on the C4 “Eleventh Hour” series, and won Best Foreign Video at Turin Youth Film Festival 1986. Made by Helen Petts and Karen Alexander with Albany Video, Cockpit Youth Arts, Second Wave Youth Theatre, the Rubber Jennies Theatre Company, Lewisham Academy of Music, Sukishan Ravers, and Mistaken Identity rappers.