Bury Me an Angel  /  Summer School Teachers

Author and series co-curator Maya Montañez Smukler will sign copies of her new book, Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors and the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema, in the theater lobby before the screening.

Bury Me an Angel  (1971)

Haunted by the memory of her brother’s murder, Dag sets out to find his killer. Writer-director Barbara Peeters revamps the popular biker genre by casting the stunning, six-foot-tall, real biker Dixie Peabody as a sister hell-bent on a mission of revenge who along the way must face her own trauma. What makes Bury Me an Angel distinct from other low-budget biker films of the same era is the way in which Peeters refrains from excessively sexualizing Peabody on screen and is conscientious in making sure that the character of Dag is never brutalized as part of the narrative. This was a unique detail during a time in film when sexual violence against women characters on-screen was a common and casual occurrence in exploitation and mainstream studios films alike. In Bury Me the journey is all Dag’s and the open road is where she feels most at home.

35mm, color, 85 min. Director/Screenwriter: Barbara Peeters. Cast: Dixie Peabody, Terry Mace, Clyde Ventura.

Summer School Teachers  (1975)

Following Bury Me an Angel, writer-director Barbara Peeters began steady work for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. In this environment, where so many films were being made and so quickly, everyone had the opportunity to learn all aspects of production. Peeters was a working writer-director, but she was also the production manager on Night Call Nurses (1972), the second-unit director on Student Teachers (1973), the art director on Young Nurses (1973), and the location manager on I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)—just to name a few credits. In 1975, Peeters wrote and directed Summer School Teachers, another installment in New World’s popular female teachers and nurses’ franchise and with a feminist twist. When three young Midwestern women leave the heartland and travel to Los Angeles for summer teaching jobs a comedic romp ensues as they find their way in the City of Angels. However, nothing can break the bonds of friendship or women’s liberation for this trio of gal pals even as they fall in love with juvenile delinquents, battle male chauvinism, and start an all-woman football team.

Print courtesy of the Shout! Factory Collection at the Academy Film Archive. 35mm, color, 86 min. Director/Screenwriter: Barbara Peeters. Cast: Candice Rialson, Pat Anderson, Rhonda Leigh Hopkins.