INSIDE LOOK: Docu on Ani DiFranco's career to screen at The Little next week

Yahoo

11-05-2025

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — For nearly 35 years, musician Ani DiFranco has graced the world with her music. With more than 20 albums released to date, the Buffalo native has used her platform to back causes including abortion rights and LGBTQ+ visibility.
This month, a documentary highlighting DiFranco's captivating life story is being brought home. Titled '1-800-ON-HER-OWN,' two screenings will take place at The Little Theatre on East Avenue on Thursday, May 15, and Saturday, May 17.
Director Dana Flor sat down with News 8's Gio Battaglia to discuss the film and the inspiration that brought it to life.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: Tell me about the documentary. What made you want to do this project?
Dana Flor: '1-800-ON-HER-OWN' is a documentary about Ani DiFranco. I had the opportunity to meet her, and I was really captivated by her amazing life story. I was also really captivated by her persona. She's so incredibly sort of cinematic and an incredibly honest person with an amazing tale. It was an untold story. So, I'm always kind of drawn to stories like that.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: Tell me about how the documentary takes viewers into DiFranco's life.
Dana Flor: The film is a mixture of her past and her present. And I had the good fortune to meet Ani at a very specific time in her life where a lot of things were happening. And one of the things that did happen was COVID. So, we sort of ride out that, and we also reflect back on her past as a young teenager growing up in Buffalo, New York, and forging her own record label and all that. It is sort of intermixing of the past and the present.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: How did DiMarco react when you wanted to make a film about her life? Tell me about her involvement in the film.
Dana Flor: She obviously was present during the whole thing. Towards the end of the film, she was really busy with Hadestown, so probably not a lot of involvement, but she sort of gave me free reign to tell her story. I was really fortunate to have a lot of trust on her part, and spent a lot of time with her. It was quite a few years there. I started it in 2019, and this film premiered and Tribeca last year. So, it's a real labor of love. Took a long time, but we're really proud of it.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: What were the fans reactions at the Tribeca Film Festival?
Dana Flor: Tribeca was one of the most amazing screenings I had ever been at. It was wild. I mean, I think that her fans are very particular, and they're very passionate. And they were wild, they laughed, they cried. It felt a little like 'Rocky Horror Picture Show.' It was very participatory. We have done a theatrical rollout through the country, and we found that it's been like this a lot. Her fans are super involved and super receptive, and they also have a tendency to drag people who don't know Ani to the film. So that's been really, really fun.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: It is so amazing that this film focuses on a Buffalo native. I am so excited that it is showing at The Little.
Dana Flor: It really is, I'm really glad to be able to sort of bring the film home. Obviously Upstate New York, Buffalo, was truly formative and who Ani was and is. So, it's great. And I bet there's a lot of people who are going to come out that can say, 'Oh, I remember in 1993 I thought…' I think that'll be really fun.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: What else should viewers know going into the film?
Dana Flor: This is a timely story. Ani's real North Star is her activism as a feminist. And again, another thing that happened during the filming was the Dobbs decision. So, you know, the death of Roe versus Wade. So, I think her work as a feminist, as an activist, is really central to who she is. It's central throughout the film, and it's sadly, incredibly timely right now.
Tickets to '1-800-ON-HER-OWN' are available on The Little's website.
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