The focus of the cooperation between Women’s Rights Center and the UnderhillFest this year is the examination of inequalities in gender relations reflected in the very structure of film language. Through the two films and the discussions that follow the screenings, we consider the angle of the “male” and “female” gaze: How much does the perspective change and what is in the camera’s focus depending on whether the woman is in front or behind the lens? How much do aesthetic choices contribute to the unethical portrayal of female characters? To what extent does the film industry continue and deepen the oppressive patterns of behavior that keep women in a subordinate position? In the words of director Nina Menkes, is a revolution possible in the domain of unwritten formal rules of visual representation?
Brainwashed: Sex, Camera, Power by Nina Menkes is a fundamental study of the objectification of the female body that shows the connection between film language and the dictatorship of patriarchy that rules all fields, including art. The director questions the traditional division of power within the film industry: By dissecting shots of famous films, from angle and camera movement to composition, lighting, she demystifies the position of women as a passive objects transferred from the painting to the film. Menkes questions the discriminatory practice of employment, as well as the traditional functioning of the film industry, which nurtures a space in which sexual harassment of women was tacitly implied until the emergence of the #MeToo movement.
Menkes is a real no-bullshit breath of fresh air. With a torch. And with any luck, she’s heading your way to set fire to something, soon. – Finn Halligan, SCREEN DAILY
The question Who describes the world? is at the heart of Courtney Stevens’ documentary Terra Femme, made up of archival material and amateur videos shot by women who traveled the world between the 1920s and 1940s. During this period, amateur cameras and travel became accessible to the middle class, enabling women not only to capture private moments from family life but to expand the frame to the public sphere of life. Terra Femme, as a kind of sociological expedition, focuses on the “female gaze” on the world shaped by violent patriarchal and colonialist narratives. Their view contrasts with the socially shaping “male view”, the second often being short-sighted for the experiences of the enslaved and marginalized.
In some ways, Terra Femme provides a response to the question of how one might define, read, and make sense of the concept of the female gaze, particularly when it refers concretely to women’s technical, epistemological and intellectual work behind the camera. – Shilyh Warren, ANOTHER GAZE
The program is held in the National Library “Radosav Ljumović” starting at 6:00 P.M.
9.06.2022: Brainwashed: Sex, Camera, Power , Nina Menkes (2022.)
10.06.2022: Terra Femme, Courtney Stephens (2021.)
About WOMEN’S RIGHTS CENTER
WRC was established in 2012, on the basis of the founders’ long-term experience in providing support to women victims of domestic violence and other violations of women’s human rights. WRC is a non-profit, non-party aligned, non-religious organization that fights to combat all forms of violence against women and for their access to justice, developing gender-equitable democratic practices and cooperating with all relevant domestic and international actors in Montenegro.