While the dictionary may be a convenient source for definitions, it is by no means the last word. Meaning is a slippery commodity; it shifts through usage...and with each user. Tonight's selection of films and videos can all be viewed as re-defining the body, primarily in relation to reproductive rights. While the issue of reproductive freedom is central to current cultural and political discourse, the main terms of the debate-family, state, and woman-are conceived in vastly different ways which reflect divergent political and social views. While only Felt Evidence is overtly part of this debate, each film on tonight's program engages in the cultural act of "conceiving" of women, a creative act which has social, economic and political ramifications. What is choice without choices? In Slippage, the difference between the idea of a baby and the fact of rearing a child is revealed, as the filmmaker visits her sisters who either have young children or would like to. The cycle of mother/daughter/mother is seen as not only one of generations, but of habits and patterns unwittingly inherited. Yet, in stopping to ask questions, filmmaker Patti Bruck knowingly "slips" away from the cycle. In the central section of Greta Snider's Futility, a woman tells the charged story of her abortion. The powerful narrative suggests an uneasiness regarding "creating," which is echoed in the use of found (rather than original) footage. An anorexic, Sallie Fuchs (It Scares Me to Feel This Way) refuses to categorize herself as ill, either physically or mentally. She sees society's negative attitude towards anorexia as reflecting cultural, even aesthetic, values which she rejects. Janis Crystal Lipzin's disturbing experimental film Other Reckless Things uses a newspaper account of a self-performed caesarean-section to "bring into question issues of voyeurism, control over one's body and the use of technology in situations that may not require it" (Will Trophy). The subtitle of Felt Evidence is "Investigating Reproductive Technologies." As always with Paper Tiger Television's alternative reports, the questions asked are at least as important as what is answered. When Jane Coltis and Ann Fanan analyze who controls what our choices mean, they implicate medical practices, social services, and government legislation. Their critique of reproductive technologies examines the political and cultural conditions that they create, extending the issue of reproductive freedom from an individual choice to social concerns. --Kathy Geritz Slippage by Patti Bruck (1989, 35 mins, B&W, l6mm, Print from Filmmaker). Futility by Greta Snider (1989, 9 mins, B&W, l6mm). It Scares Me to Feel This Way by Sallie Fuchs (1987, 11 mins, B&W, l6mm). Other Reckless Things by Janis Crystal Lipzin (1984, 20 mins, Color, l6mm). Felt Evidence: Investigating Reproductive Technologies by Jane Coltis, Ann Fanan. Produced by Paper Tiger Television (1989, 30 mins, Color, 3/4" video, Tape from Paper Tiger Television)