Fresh Kill (The Criterion Collection) 04/26 Blu-ray (Rental)

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. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K restoration, supervised and approved by director Shu Lea Cheang and director of photography Jane Castle, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack New interviews with Cheang and actor Sarita Choudhury New program highlighting the 2024 theatrical rerelease of the film and Cheang’s self-distribution Discussion with Cheang for the film’s thirtieth anniversary, moderated by scholar Jigna Desai, and presented by the Carsey-Wolf Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative profile of Cheang, recipient of the organization’s 2024 award for artist achievement English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by artist and technologist Mindy Seu