In honour of Women in Horror Recognition Month, we asked its creator, Hannah Neurotica (also the creator and editor of Ax Wound: Gender in the Horror Genre ‘zine), to join us with a guest blog post. We asked her to write about someone who inspired her, and stoked her interest in the role of women in the horror genre. She chose, Sarah Jacobson, the filmmaker behind Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore and I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, and the creator of the S.T.I.G.M.A. Manifesto. Thanks for joining us, Hannah.

Remembering Sarah Jacobson and the S.T.I.G.M.A. Manifesto
by Hannah Neurotica

“The girl in the movie reminds me of you.”
I had just come off the intoxicating visual experience one gets after viewing her first John Waters film, reveling in the eye-opening discovery of underground art, punk rock and film. I began dating a guy who worked for a small indie record label on St. Marks Place (before it became the upscale shithole it is now) and like many teenagers about to graduate high school I was preparing for the big out-of- state move to college. My boyfriend was already worried about the future of our relationship. “I saw this film last night in the city and the girl in the movie reminds me of you.”
I was curious what it was about her that made him think of me, and being the narcissistic teenager I was, it was damn crucial I saw said film; not to mention the title alone was enough to peak my interest: Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore (1997). While most movie theatres were locking up for the night this art house was just opening and just like the film title, I was about to lose my art house movie watching virginity.
The film began with Mary Jane (played by Lisa Gerstein) having sex for the first time in a graveyard, shot in grainy 16mm. I recognized myself in her immediately: dark curly hair, Jewish features and the awkward self-consciousness of her demeanour. As the movie unfolded, I realized it wasn’t just her physical appearance that made him think of me: it was the story of a young teenage girl in a place of life transition and sexual awakening.
This viewing experience has been burned into my brain, and even though I never really sat around and thought of it at length, the film re-appeared in my life years later when I began a deep obsession with feminist punk rock (Riot Grrrl), ‘zine culture, and Lydia Lunch / Cinema of Transgression. You see, I had stumbled onto a short black and white film titled I Was a Teenage Serial Killer (1993) – a movie about a woman who kills asshole men. I knew the short had been made by a woman but it wasn’t until I looked it up that I learned the same woman behind this short was also responsible for a feature film none other then Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore. Holy Shit!
When Rue Morgue proposed that I write a blog post on a woman who inspired me, it took me a few hours of brainstorming until I had an epiphany. Sarah Jacobson! I would write about how her work impacted my current love of indie film, but as I began to do some Googling, my eyes were popping out of my head. I didn’t expect to uncover such interesting gems about her life, or so much sadness.
Jacobson (pictured) passed away in 2004 of endometrial cancer at age of 32 – only two years older than I am now.
This powerhouse feminist, DIY, badass female filmmaker could have easily been responsible for something akin to Women in Horror Month if she hadn’t died so young. Not only did she start her own production company with her mother, Ruth Jacobson, but she worked as an art activist, a journalist, a ‘zine writer and most importantly, the author of The S.T.I.G.M.A. Manifesto.
I found this manifesto online just a week ago and read it wide-eyed (I don’t say that as an expression, my eyes were seriously bugging out!). Here was a document written well over a decade ago holding almost the same ideals behind the Women in Horror Month manifesto, calling out the “stigma” of women working in the film industry. Here is a passage from it (read the entire manifesto, along with its set of guidelines here):

“In honor of all those women out there making films and kicking ass, I propose a new manifesto…
…Because movies that reflect a woman’s point of view are still too rare…
…Because even though women are achieving incredible feats in business, politics, sports, and the arts, we are still invisible unless we are the love interest or the heinous bitch (or both!)
…Because distributors don’t pick up films made by women and critics don’t champion girl-friendly movies that do get released.
…Because the industry doesn’t know how to market to a female audience and isn’t interested in organizing one…”

To quote Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle, “There’s no doubt in the minds of anyone…that she greatly helped stoke the flames of the guerilla and indie filmmaking movement while becoming a voice for grrrl-positive cineastes everywhere.”
Jacobson is part of our horror and underground film lineage, but just like most women she has gone relatively unnoticed. We cannot allow her to be written out of history, and with that I am here now to recognize the amazing passion she had while carving out space for women in filmmaking.
After her death, her mother and friend Sam Green founded the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant. It aims to give funds annually to selected female filmmakers whose work embodies the ideals of The Stigma Manifesto: “a fierce DIY approach to filmmaking, a radical social critique, and a thoroughly underground sensibility.”
Oddly enough, the last discovery I made when researching this brilliant woman is that she died in February. There is nobody I am more honoured to be sharing with you during February’s Women in Horror Recognition Month.
Help fight the stigma and honour the S.T.I.G.M.A., and let’s keep Sarah Jacobson’s hard work and dedication in the forefront of our fight. I can only imagine how overjoyed she would be by the progress us badass ladies are making.

For more information on the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant please visit http://sjfilmgrant.wordpress.com/

[You can hear more about Hannah on the Rue Morgue podcast, and you can follow her on Twitter, here.]