Fresh Kill
Directed by Shu Lea Cheang • 1994 • United States
Starring Sarita Choudhury, Erin McMurtry, Abraham Lim
A disturbingly prescient ecofeminist parable and a brain-wave-scrambling cyberpunk fantasia, the debut feature from new-media pioneer Shu Lea Cheang merges a bold vision of resistance with an exuberant early-internet aesthetic. In a dystopian-chic New York where sushi joints and toxic-waste sites exist side by side, a lesbian couple (Sarita Choudhury and Erin McMurtry) turn to the hacker underground to solve their daughter’s disappearance, in the process exposing a conspiracy involving corporate greenwashing and tainted fish. Swinging between outré satire and agitprop, FRESH KILL sounds the alarm about a capitalist system that pollutes everything from our waterways to our bodies to our minds.
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Fresh Kill
Directed by Shu Lea Cheang • 1994 • United States
Starring Sarita Choudhury, Erin McMurtry, Abraham LimA disturbingly prescient ecofeminist parable and a brain-wave-scrambling cyberpunk fantasia, the debut feature from new-media pioneer Shu Lea Cheang merges a bold vision of resistance with an ...
Extras
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Shu Lea Cheang on FRESH KILL
In this 2026 interview with the Criterion Collection, artist-director Shu Lea Cheang reflects on 1990s New York City and how its shifting media landscape, community networks, and grassroots activism inspired her to direct FRESH KILL.
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Guggenheim Artist Portrait of Shu Lea Cheang
This 2024 profile by the Guggenheim follows artist-director Shu Lea Cheang in Paris as she discusses her interdisciplinary practice and her long-standing engagement with technology and community.
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Shu Lea Cheang and Jigna Desai on FRESH KILL
Following a thirtieth-anniversary screening of FRESH KILL at the University of California, Santa Barbara, artist-director Shu Lea Cheang speaks with professor Jigna Desai about the film’s continued relevance as well as its environmental and political concerns.
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Sarita Choudhury on FRESH KILL
In this interview, conducted by the Criterion Collection in 2026, actor Sarita Choudhury reflects on her early career and discusses the making of FRESH KILL.
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FRESH KILL: The Road Trip
This documentary short follows artist-director Shu Lea Cheang and filmmakers Jazz Franklin and Jean-Paul Jones as they bring a newly restored 35 mm print of Fresh Kill to twenty-two cinemas across the country over thirty-three days. Three decades after its original release, Cheang explores her f...
