Developing within the context of the poem ‘Excuses for not Moving’, ‘Intrusions’ thoughtfully explores the contradictory impulses in the traditional role of housewife. It commits itself not to providing a disingenuously simple solution, but to women’s need to explore the possibilities for change. The text comes from tape recordings made by a number of women discussing their own situation, concerns, feelings. The visuals are taken mainly from the kitchen – fragmented, abstract close-ups suggest the abstracted gaze of the housewife herself; sequences of live action draw on habit, fear, the imagination – till a picture of “everyday” life has been pieced together and simultaneously questioned.

‘Intrusions’ came out of concern with the limits that block women on all sorts of levels – with our creativity, the ways that we live, our relationship with ourselves and others, our ability to make decisions and to follow through choices, our desires for change. It also came out of discussions about “women’s language” – how we usually speak and think, and how this could be, particularly in films. 

– Caz Sheldon

‘Intrusions’ puts fragments of women’s words together into a lyrical narrative about a day in the life of a married woman, using details of housework to build up an aesthetic of the boredom, anxiety and frustrations of existing lifestyles.

– Jo Comino, City Limits

Description source: Circles Catalogue (circa 1983). Compiled by Helen MacKintosh and Margaret Gillan. Edited by Felicity Sparrow.